'Before you receive this,' he wrote, 'you will have heard of the
affair of to-day, and that our two lads have come out of it better
than some others. There are but nine officers living, and only four
unhurt out of the 25th Lancers, and Fred's escape is entirely owing
to your son.'
Then followed a brief narrative of the events of Balaklava, that
fatal charge so well described as 'magnifique mais pas la guerre,' a
history that seemed like a dream in connexion with the timid Gilbert.
His individual story was thus:--He safely rode the 'half a league'
forward, but when more than half way back, his horse was struck to
the ground by a splinter of the same shell that overthrew Major
Ferrars, at a few paces' distance from him. Quickly disengaging
himself from his horse, Gilbert ran to assist his friend, and
succeeded in extricating him from his horse, and supporting him
through the remainder of the terrible space commanded by the
batteries. Fred, unable to move without aid, and to whom each step
was agony, had entreated Gilbert to relinquish his hold, and not
peril himself for a life already past rescue; but Gilbert had not
seemed to hear, and when several of the enemy came riding down on
them, he had used his revolver with such effect, as to lay two of the
number prostrate, and deter the rest from repeating the attack.
'All this I heard from Fred,' continued the General; 'he is in his
usual spirits, and tells me that he feels quite jolly since his arm
has been off, and he has been in his own bed, but I fear he has a
good deal to suffer, for his right side is terribly lacerated, and I
shall be glad when the next few days are over.
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