The Story of Alec Drummond, of the 17th Lancers

Chapter I

:< But when all is past, it is humbling to tread O'er the weltering field of the tombless dead, And see worms of the earth, and fowls of the air, And beasts of the forest, all gathering there : All regarding man as their prey, All rejoicing in his decay." Bteon, Siege of Corinth. I felt intensely wretched on quitting my cousin and returning to our encampment ; but the burthen of the great sorrow weighing upon me was strangely relieved by the sights and scenes of the next few hours. While the French had removed the whole of their wounded and dead from the field the day before, not leaving the former even a night to their sufferings, both officers and men going forth to assist them immediately after the fight, our troops, on the other hand, had not completed one-half of the VOL. II. B same sad duty at the end of thirty-six hours, and on the morning of Friday, the 22nd Sep tember, the hill-side was still strewn with corpses in British uniforms, and men groaning in the agonies of death.

There seemed to be with us an utter want of organisation for relieving and remedying, as far as lay in human power, the casualties of the battle, just as if a combat with the Russians, and the possibility of our soldiers being killed and wounded, was something unnatural, and altogether out of the common order of things, and as such had never been thought of by our generals. At first, none but the bandsmen of the various regiments were employed to bring the wounded to the rear, there to be given in charge of the few surgeons we possessed, not one quarter enough, as we had found long ago in Bulgaria, to attend to even the ordinary sickness of the army. When the bandsmen broke down under the task, fatigue parties from the infantry were sent to fetch in the wounded, but they found it quite as impossible to accomplish the work, not only medical assistance, ambulances, stretchers, and everything else required for the purpose being wanting, but even hospital tents, or any other kind of shelter against rain and wind that could be substituted for them.

Thus our poor soldiers, hit by Russian bullets or swords, but, to their misfortune, not fatally, were laid down on the cold earth, to perish like dogs, with a mere mockery of medical care and attention. On the daybreak of the 22nd of September, the French, as rumour went among us, were eager to march and advance upon the enemy ; but, as we had still more than one-half of our wounded upon the ground, and scarcely any buried, we could not move, and there seemed a strong pro bability that it would take us three or four days longer to get through the task. However, at the last moment, the fleet came to our assistance, and as I returned from the quarters of the Scots Greys to my regiment, I saw long strings of Crimean carts, loaded with wounded, jolt down to the beach, and cripples, in all stages of misery, painfully creeping after.

At the same time, several huge graves were being dug for the reception of the slain, and their bodies shovelled into them in great haste. Looking at the cripples ALEC DRTJMMOND. and the grave-digging, I fell into dreaming about the motto of our 17th Lancers, the mystic word " glory." The order for our march onward came in the afternoon of the 22nd, to my delight, and that of every one of my comrades, all of them more or less distracted at the sights we had before our eyes. Moving on in advance of the British army, the bulk of which was not to start before the next morning, we got over about six or seven miles of ground, encamping at nightfall at the foot of a rather steep hdl, close alongside a French battery, which had arrived before us. Entering into conversation with a sous-officier, who appeared delighted on my addressing him in his native tongue, I got a variety of news, among other, that the neighbourhood was swarm ing with Cossacks, and that very likely there would be a tough bit of fighting before the night was over.

To prepare for the emergency, I fastened my horse, which I had always trouble to find in the dark, to that of our trumpet-major, a grey mare of somewhat conspicuous appearance, and then lay down in the rank grass, to take as much rest as I could get. I had not slept more than an hour when the expected alarm came in full force, the cry, " the Rooshians are upon us " resounding from one end to the other of our encampment. But all the wise precautions I had taken in getting at my horse in the shortest possible time now proved vain ; for, search as I would, my " Jack " was not to be found at the place I left him, nor within a hundred yards of the grey mare. After more than a quarter of an hour's hunting, I discovered him at last near the French tents, apparently' foraging about, probably as hungry as his master.

By the time I got into saddle, the Cossacks, whom nobody had seen as yet, and who seemed to be in the air rather than on the earth, had vanished, and my comrades having come back from a short gallop into some bushes interspersed with prickly furze, we all wrapped ourselves once more in our blankets, and stretched out on the ground. No more " Rooshians," alive or in the spirit, made their appearance for the night, and moistened though the grass was by a heavy dew, I enjoyed a good sleep, and got up well refreshed at sunrise on the morning of Saturday the 23rd of September _ We started again on our march a little before eight o'clock, and about noon got to the Katcha river and the village of Eskel. The latter was most beautifully situated, at the bottom of a rich valley, surrounded by groves of fruit trees, vineyards, and flower gardens, from the midst of which there peeped out rows of white cottages, partly covered with evergreens, while in the background, on a little eminence, stood a hand some church, with columns, surmounted by a small dome, in the style of a Greek temple.

We rested here for a couple of hours, and had time to examine the place, our chief object naturally being to see whether any victuals could be had, as we were all of us in a starving condition. The whole of the houses, neat and clean in the extreme, and much superior to those of most English villages, were empty, the in habitants apparently having fled in precipitation at our approach, taking with them all their portable property. Nevertheless, there were plenty of vegetables, as well as considerable stores of flour, together with an abundance of fruit, allowing us to prepare a dinner such as we had nut tasted for many a day. We all hoped to remain in this garden of Eden for the night, but our expectations now, as often before, were doomed to be disappointed. A little after two o'clock, the vanguard of our infantry streamed into the village, and immediately after the order came for us to continue our onward march to a little hamlet called Yalonkoi, said to be four miles from the Katcha, in a straight southerly direction.

In a few minutes we were again in our saddles, making our way slowly up-hill, deeply regretting the delicious quarters on which our backs were turned, and trying to call up visions of equally nice lodgings in front of us, well provided Avith grapes, flour, and potatoes, and, perhaps, if good luck would have it, an odd rib of beef or shoulder of mutton. So we rode on in tolerably good spirits, over a very bad road, which gradually shaped itself into a mere track, all but impassable for carriages, and along which we had difficulty to make our way. The track itself came to an end at last at the top of the steep ridge we had been climbing, and there was no trace of the hamlet we were in search of, although we had made more than four miles, keeping due south as much as possible. Our officers seemed infinitely perplexed what next to do, when luckily one of my comrades, who had gone a little distance ahead, probably for vic tualling purposes, announced that he had discovered a path down the hill, with a glimmer of houses at the end of it.

The road thus indicated was adopted, though somewhat hesitatingly, by our commander, and passing over the crest of the hill, we scrambled down a tortuous ravine, bearing all the appearance of having been once the bed of a stream. At the end of the ravine we found our hamlet, very picturesquely situated in a deep hollow gorge, crowded with the most luxurious vegetation, but to military eyes distressingly like a mouse trap. It required no particular strategical know ledge to see that a few hundred men of the enemy could shut us up in the trap without a chance of escape, and that a couple of well-posted guns could pound us all to pieces, or, as my friend Mike jocularly observed, " make mincemeat of us." The idea somewhat spoiled our anticipations of a warm supper, which we indulged at the first sight of charming Yalonkoi.

There were gardens ALEC DRUMMONE. 9 around every house, just as at Eskel, and evi dently no want of fine cabbages and of magnificent pumpkins. But of what good were even pump kins to men who had tumbled into a pit.

Chapter II

" Remembrance wakes with all her busy train, Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain." Goldsmith, Tlie Deserted Tillage. It became quite clear before half an hour was over that we should never sup at Yalonkoi. As soon as we arrived in the hamlet a consultation took place between the colonels of the various regiments of the Light Brigade, the result of which was the despatch of an aide-de-camp to the head-quarters of the Commander-in-Chief on the river Katcha. Not long after he had started the light began to fade in the deep gorge in which we were halting, and thereupon the order was given to return by the road we had come. The retreat was infinitely more arduous than the advance, difficult as the latter had been. We had not been climbing more than two or three hundred yards up the long narrow ravine when we came upon a troop of horse artillery completely jammed in between the overhanging sides of the broken ground, and unable to move either forward or backward.

It was with the utmost trouble we succeeded in making our way around this obstacle; yet we had not gone another hundred yards when we came across a greater one. Our commissariat waggons were following in the rear of the field artillery, and, like these, had got squeezed in, and come to a dead stop in the deep rut down which we had scrambled, and up which we were now again scaling. We learnt that they also were under orders for the return up-hill journey ; but how they could effect this without the aid of balloons was a problem not very easy to solve. Not deeming it within our range of duty to reflect deeply upon it, we crawled round the waggons as we had crawled round the guns, with curses and maledictions flydng about our ears as thick as hailstones. Together with all my comrades, I was woefully tired, and devoured by hunger, and still more by thirst, the day having been very hot, and the dust fearful.

Nevertheless, I could not help thinking, while pushing up the hill, and feeling at every step as if my poor " Jack " was breaking down under me, that the commandership of our army was of the strangest kind. The same as in Bul garia and on the Black Sea, so now again here in the Crimea, we were as if drifting about by the impulse of mere chance, not only after no visible design or preconcerted plan, but not even, as far as we could see, under the guiding direction of any man or united body of men. It was perfectly clear that those who had sent us down into the Yalonkoi gorge did not know what they were doing, no more than those who sent us up again, and that we were being simply thrown to and fro like shuttlecocks in a loom. While thus musing, I was surprised to see Peter Marsh come close to me, and, pulling up his horse, begin talking on the subject momentarily occu pying my thoughts.

" I don't half like," said he, looking very melancholy, "the way in which we are lugged about ; it was bad enough at Varna, but seems worse here. — Do you think," he continued after a short pause, I remaining silent, " any of us will ever get home again ? " It was a puzzling question to reply to, and I contented myself with remarking, somewhat hesitatingly, that I trusted we all would safely get back to our friends. " I am certain I never shall," responded Peter, in earnest tone. " I feel very queer now," he added, "and I don't think I shall get over it." The sun had sunk while we were climbing up hill ; but at this moment we issued out of the dark ravine, and there was light enough to see things at a short distance. Giving a glance at my companion, while he was uttering his mourn ful words, I was startled on perceiving his face overspread by a dull livid hue.

It was near midnight before we could stretch our weary limbs on the ground, with but very little prospect of rest before us. The uncertainty as to our movements, and general distrust of the wisdom and good sense of the orders we were receiving, shared alike, as I could plainly perceive, by officers and privates, had given rise to vague rumours of our being surrounded by a strong force of the enemy, which led to extreme pre cautions against any surprise. We were forbidden both to unsaddle our horses and to light any fires, while numerous pickets were stationed all around our bivouac, and vedettes thrown forward to give the alarm at the slightest suspicious occurrence. The night was as bitterly cold as the preceding day had been hot, while the ground was wet with dew ; and, closely as I tried to wrap myself in my blanket, I could not sleep, shivering from the toes to the top of my head.

For nearly an hour I kept gazing at the starry sky, which seemed wonderfully bright, more so than I ever re membered having seen it before, when on a sudden my attention was attracted by a deep groan, which seemed as if coming from the earth. Listening to the strange sound, I heard it repeated after the interval of a few minutes, followed by a subdued voice, which said, in reply to another, " He is dying, poor fellow ; there is nothing to be done." Springing to my feet, to see whether I could render any help, I groped through the long rows of my sleeping comrades, huddled together like sheep in a pen, and with some difficulty reached the place from which the talking had come. " Who is dying ? " I asked. " It's Peter Marsh," replied a voice near, which I recognised as that of one of our bandsmen.

" Can nothing be done ? " I inquired, my heart beating while I asked the question. " Nothing," was the answer ; " it's a very bad attack of cholera." Trembling, I knelt down at the side of my poor comrade, and the words which he had uttered but a few hours before coming into my recollection, I attempted to rouse him by some hopeful ex pressions. But he took no notice, only uttering a few incoherent sounds, of which " George " was the most distinct. It was clear that his mind was wandering. " He has been talking to his brother George for the last half an hour," said the bandsman. " Was his brother really killed at the Alma ?" I inquired. " I helped throwing his body, with a heap of others, into the pit made for the Guards and the 23rd Fusiliers," was the quiet rejoinder ; "and I should sayr all those were really dead, though we had our doubts in other quarters, where the burying was going on very fast."

The expressed suspicion was too terrible to dwell upon, and I was hastening to change the subject, when startled by a sudden convulsive movement at my side. " Georgy ! Georgy ! " cried the faint voice of my comrade ; and a second after I distinctly heard the death-rattle in his throat. " He is gone," said the bandsman ; " well for him ! " It was a short night, but I thought it would never come to an end. Faint and tired as Iwas, and scarce able to move my limbs, I yet could not sleep, and kept tossing about one weary hour after the other on the damp ground. How I wished the Cossacks would attack us, that I might jump on my horse and gallop away, exchanging the wild excitement of the battle for the fearful torpor of this existence ! But the Cossacks came not. I watched and I listened, yet there was not a movement to be seen anywhere, save that of the glittering stars above.

An unnatural, ghastly, grave-like stillness seemed to pervade the air. At last, I could bear its weight no longer, and sprang to my feet, just as a faint red streak was lifting itself over the grey mist of the hills bounding the horizon to the east. While I was shaking myself to get rid of the heavy dew that clung to me, I noticed, with some surprise, that most of my comrades were divesting themselves of their wet blankets. Only a few, I found, had enjoyed a sound rest, the greater number spending the night in half or entire sleeplessness. The call, to the delight of every one of us, sounded early, and soon after daybreak, having made a few hasty preparations, we were on the start again. Although it was Sunday, a long march over a very rough piece of country was laid down for us, and there was a general rumour that we should have to fight before getting to our journey's end.

However, the first two hours passed on very quietly, our road leading up-hill and down-hill, alternately over barren chalk ridges, and then again through charming valleys, full of the most luxuriant vegetation. Here and there we came upon clusters of cottages, deserted like all those we had met before ; but though the inmates had fled, taking whatever they deemed valuable with them, there were plenty of good things, far more precious than gold and silver, left as gifts for us. Nearly all the houses we came across, and had VOL. II. c time to examine, were well stocked with meat, bread, and other acceptable provisions, while the gardens contained such masses of fruit and vege tables as to be positively embarrassing in their wealth, the difficulty as to what should be picked first, and what should be left behind, causing many an involuntary sigh.

To diminish their affliction in the latter respect as much as possible, most of my comrades loaded themselves with immense quantities of victuals, and not content with filling every available bag and pocket, they stuck cabbages to their shakos, melons and cu cumbers to the points of their lances, and adorned their necks with strings of apples, pears, and onions. The sight thus presented made me think of " Birnam Wood removed to Dunsinane," though the poetical aspect of the movement was some what disfigured by Macbeth's "leafy screens " being composed chiefly of cabbages and onions. We had marched about ten miles, and, crossing a narrow vale, were getting upon very uneven ground, when all at once the report arrived that the enemy was close. The shout of " Cavalry to the front ! " instantly resounded along our lines, and away we went in full gallop, first the 8th Hussars, we Lancers next, the 13th Light Dragoons after us, and behind them the Scots Greys.

When we had advanced about a thousand yards, we came to a dense forest, where we could only ride in single file, and the Greys haying reached us by this time, distancing the Light Dragoons, we got mixed together in curious fashion, like figures in a pantomime. Greys, Hussars, and Lancers pushed on behind each other in one long string, and, progress being difficult, most of my companions had to drop their strings of apples and onions, and shake even the most juicy melons from the points of their lances. Half an hour's trot brought us through the wood, and on to an open plain, on one side of which, to our left, stood a long, low range of buildings, looking like a large farmyard. It was here the enemy was said to be in great force ; however, closely as we inspected the building, as well as the surrounding orchards and gardens, we could not find a single Russian, nor so much as a Tartar, every living creature having flown, with the exception of an extraordinary ugly, big- ■JO ALEC DRUMMOND. headed, tailless dog, who sat howling in a corner.

After a short rest, and a hearty meal of tough biscuit and very delicious pears, we got in move ment again, and, passing through a delightful valley, in about two hours reachedthe village of Belbek, on the river of the same name. Fine as was the scenery through which we had passed in part of our day's march, the spot we had come to was more beautiful than anything else we hud yet seen. Encompassed by lofty hills, covered with the richest vegetation from top to base, the valley itself was glorious to look upon, while the little village nestling in its centre, amidst vine yards sloping down to the river, was absolutely enchanting. The greater number of the dwellings of Belbek was composed of the neat whitewashed cottages of the peasantry, to which our eye had already got accustomed ; but there were not wanting a better class of houses, of the appearance of gentle men's residences, and in the upper part of the village stood two large edifices, of the size and style of mansions.

A halt having been ordered near one of these buildings, we picketed our horses, and then there was a rush into the place, I taking part in it, impelled by no other motive than curiosity. I expected to find a handsomely furnished residence, but was quite astonished at the mag nificence I beheld, all the rooms being decorated in the highest style of art, the ceilings painted, the floors inlaid, the walls covered with the finest pictures, interspersed with niches holding marble statues, and everything giving evidence of great wealth, no less than of very rare taste. In one of the rooms stood a piano, with a book of music on it ; and looking at the latter, as it lay open, I beheld, with some surprise, the air of "Auld Lang Syne." Just as I was staring at the notes, which seemed to greet me like an old friendly face, I was struck on the shoulder, and the same instant heard the deep voice of my cousin Donald.

" Give us a tune, Alec," he cried, accompanying the words by a shake which I thought some what too hearty; after which, seeing me turn round, he bent down, whispering in my ear, " it will help to keep in order some of the fellows who have got itching palms." Thus appealed to, I could not refuse, and sitting down to the piano began playing " Auld Lang Syne." I had not got over a couple of dozen notes, when there was a tremendous uproar, a vast multitude of voices, bass and treble, hoarse and soft, cracked and sweet, rolling forth in one wave of song, " Should auld acquaintance be forgot." Leaping from room to room, the wave appeared to flow in a moment out of the house, taken up by hundreds of sturdy voices in the gardens and vineyards, and before I had reached the end of the first verse, the whole village of Belbek was re-echoing with, "An' days o' Auld Lang Syne."

But all on a sudden, the song came to a stop, replaced by the cry of " Cavalry to the front," and at the same instant there was a tumultuous rush out of doors and windows. Dragged along by my cousin, I had nearly reached the main entrance of the house when my eye fell upon an oil painting against the wall. Was I waking or dreaming ? There was the sweet face of the girl I had saved from drowning under Dover cliffs, looking down upon me just as she looked when I held her in my arms. I felt as if transfixed to the spot, unable to move ; but the crowd and my cousin Donald, who had clutched my arm as in a vice, carried me onward. In another second I was out of doors, rushing towards my horse, urged on by the deafening shout of " Cavalry to the front."