ndered:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them,
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well;
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell,
Rode the six hundred.

Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre-stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not--
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them,
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
Oh, the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

_THE FALL OF SEBASTOPOL._

The history of Russia has been largely a history of wars,--which indeed
might be said with equal justice of most of the nations of Europe. In
truth, history as written gives such prominence to warlike deeds, and
glosses over so hastily the events of peace, that we seem to hear the
roll of the drum rising from the written page itself, and to see the hue
of blood crimsoning the printed sheets. This dominance of war in history
is a striking instance of false perspective. Nations have not spent all
or most of their lives in fighting, but the clash of the sword rings so
loudly through the historic atmosphere that we scarcely hear the milder
sounds of peace.

So far as Russia is concerned, the torrent of war has rolled mainly
towards the south. From those early days in which the Scythians drove
back the Persian host and the early Varangians fiercely assailed the
Greek empire, the relations of the north and the south have been
strained, and a rapid succession of wars has been waged between the
Russians and their varying foes, the Greeks, the Tartars, and the Turks.
For ten centuries these wars have continued, with Constantino