A CHECK. THE BATTLE CONTINUED i6i 



compelled, to " get on," as the horse can be made to 

 jump, by the voice and the will of the teacher. 



Thus, " the will of a horseman to move forward, 

 no less than his power to elude or overcome all 

 obstacles," which, as Kinglake adds, " is singularly 

 strengthened by the education of the hunting- field," 

 will influence our soldiers on the modern battle-field, 

 as it did the gallant 7th Fusiliers at the Alma. 



Here we would repeat, that the eye for ground so 

 thoroughly possessed by Lacy Yea {vide p. 3) will 

 play a very prominent part ; may mean, indeed, all 

 the difference between " getting on " and being 

 " held up," or between no casualties and very heavy 

 ones. 



We have now been going some time, and our 

 horse has lost his first freshness, though he is still 

 going strong and well. If we are wise we shall now 

 be more than ever careful to save him all we can in 

 the way so delightfully explained by Whyte-Melville 

 in Riding Recollections. If we do not take pre- 

 cautions about this period of the chase, the odds are 

 much in favour of our being "downed." Even this, 

 however, if it happens, should teach us something, 

 for presence of mind, the quality necessary to meet 

 it, will mean all the difference between getting off 

 with a scramble, and going down with a fall. How 

 necessary presence of mind is for the soldier need 

 not be expatiated on. 



The fox is beginning to run short now, and the 

 battle is nearly over. With that "eye forward " we 

 see him, in one of his short turns, sinking a hedge- 



M 



