oled down
enough to breed one statesman!

He had taken breath by this time. "I won't make it longer than I can
help, but it is difficult to tell some things very briefly. It was my
first real charge, you know; I suppose every man's sensations are rather
peculiar under such circumstances. I did not feel much alarmed--there
wasn't time for that--but the smoke, and the noise, and the excitement
made me so dizzy that I could hardly sit straight in my saddle. When we
got within a hundred and fifty yards of the Sikhs their fire began to
tell. I heard a bubbling, smothered sort of cry close behind me, and I
looked back just in time to see a trooper fall forward over his horse's
shoulder shot through the throat. Several more were hit, and our fellows
began to waver a little--not much. Just then Royston's voice broke in:
it was so clear and strong that it set my nerves right directly, and the
dizzy, stifling feeling went away, as it might have done before a
draught of fresh pure air. 'Close up there, the rear rank. Keep cool,
men! Steady with your bridle-hands, and strike fairly with the edge.
_Now!_'

"He was three lengths ahead of his squadron, and well in among the
enemy, when that last word came out. It was sharp work while it lasted,
for the Sikhs fought like wounded wildcats: one fixed his teeth in my
boot, and was dragged there till my covering-sergeant cut him loose; but
we were soon through them. When we had wheeled, and were dressing into
line, I caught sight of Keene's face. It was so changed that I should
hardly have known it: every fibre was quivering with passion; and his
eyes--I've not forgotten them yet. We ought to have fallen back
immediately on our old ground, but it was so evident he did not mean
this, that I ventured to suggest to him what our orders had been. I was
not second in command; but of my two seniors one was helpless (the
stupidest man you ever saw), and the other hard hit. Royston faced round
on me with a savage oath, 'How dare you interfere, sir! Are you in
command of this squadron?' Then he turned to the troopers, 'Have you had
half enough yet, men? _I haven't._' I am very sure he had lost his head,
or he would never have spoken to me so, still less have made that last
appeal, for he was the strictest disciplinarian, and looked upon his men
as the merest machines. It seemed as if the devil that possessed him had
gone out into the others too, for they all shouted in reply--not a
cheery honest h