176 GENERAL CAMPBELL'S ATTACK.
CHAP.
VII.
Todleben's
jioliey.
General
Campbell
killed.
Colonel
Shadforth
killed.
Courses
that might
lie taken
by the
57tli men.
mean to allow. It was mainly to ward off all
fighting of the hand-to-hand sort that he plied
his great Art. He might, and he would cause
his adversaries to die, or fall wounded, but not
under those conditions of reciprocal action which
men call a 'fight.' On the contrary, he would
strike down assailants with his favourite re-
source of ' mitrail ' before they could come to
close quarters.
General Campbell was very soon killed. His
authority devolved on Lord West (then on duty
at the head of the reserve), and the next in com-
mand on the spot was Colonel Shadforth, the
chief of the 57th men. At nearly the same time,
however, Colonel Shadforth was killed ; and this
simultaneous loss of not only the chief but also
of him who — at least on the spot — had stood the
next in command was of course such an accident
as — if not even causing discouragement of a seri-
ous kind — might well break asunder the thread
of any settled design which till then had been
guiding the troops.
These men of the proud 57th might soon find
death under the fire that began to be greeting
them from the moment when, turning the para-
pet, they emerged on the open ground ; but, to
satisfy the exigency of their great Albuera tradi-
tion, they needed to be at close quarters with an
enemy so as not to be dying like saints, but rather
fighting like men;* and, approachable as it was
- An allusion to the famous command, ' Fifty-seventh ! die
' hard ! ' which was addressed to the regiment at Albuera by
