CHAP. I.
like? Were they to do thus, although their efficacy as a force acting in support of the troops in advance was likely to depend upon their being Halt of the able to come up in good order? Halt of the 1st Division before entering the vineyards. The 1st Division was halted; yet the Light Division was moving rapidly forward.
Why was there this failure of concert between the Light and the 1st Divisions? Why was there no man there who could link the one Division to the other by a few decisive words?
Lord Raglan had already given his orders, and at this moment, led forward by a golden chance, he was riding far away in another part of the field. Sir George Brown, already in the enclosures, and having no line of skirmishers to cover the advance of his battalions, was unable to govern the movements of his Division in such a way as to prevent it from getting too far in advance of the Guards and Highlanders; and afterwards, when Sir George went forward in person with that part of his Division which stormed the redoubt, he seems to have found no means of communicating with the Duke of Cam- bridge and pressing for the immediate support of the 1st Division.
Every moment was precious; for the men of the Light Division were moving down at a run through the vineyards, or wading across the river.
At the time of this halt the battalion of the Grenadier Guards was across the great road. Thither now, from the west, a horseman came
