At a critical moment in the battle an order given to the Royal Welsh to retire was mistaken by the Scots Guards as meant for them, and they began to retreat in considerable disorder. Lieutenant Lindsay, who carried the regimental colours, stood his ground with his escort, endeavouring in vain to rally the broken ranks. The tide of men swept past him to the rear, however, and the little knot of soldiers round the colours was isolated. In this perilous position they were fiercely attacked by a body of Russians, the escort falling almost to a man, and leaving Lindsay and a fellow-officer to stand back to back and keep off the enemy with revolvers. Help was speedily forthcoming, however. Seeing their officer’s danger, Sergeants Knox and M’Kechnie, with Private Reynolds, hastened to his side and successfully held the Russians in check until the regiment re-formed and advanced again. All three men, it is satisfactory to add, were similarly decorated. Of Sergeant Knox more was heard later, especially at the storming of the Redan, where he lost an arm. By this time he had been promoted to a lieutenancy and transferred to the Rifle Brigade, from which he subsequently retired with the rank of Major. CHAPTER III. THE CRIMEA.--IN THE BALACLAVA CHARGES. It is not remembered as it should be that there were two brilliant charges made at Balaclava, on that grey day of October 25th, 1854. Tennyson’s stirring lines in honour of the Charge of the Light Brigade have given enduring fame to the “noble Six Hundred,” but the exploit of the “Three Hundred,” the Heavy Brigade, should make the name of Balaclava equally thrilling to us. The Heavy Brigade was composed of squadrons of the 4th and 5th Dragoon Guards, Scots Greys, Inniskilling Dragoons, and the 1st Royals, under the command of Brigadier-General Yorke Scarlett. At an early stage of the fight Scarlett was proceeding with his brigade to the support of the “thin red line” which was bearing the brunt of the Russian attack, when suddenly a huge mass of Russian cavalry, Cossacks and others, 3000 strong, loomed up on the heights to their left. The situation was a perilous one, as the General saw in a glance. The launching of that great crowd of Russians upon the valley below meant annihilation for his little force. With a quick command to “wheel into line,” Scarlett gave orders for the brigade to form up, facing the enemy. By some blunder, however, the movement was not properly executed, and when the Russians flung out in a wide-spreading crescent to envelop the few hundreds of British redcoats below them, two squadrons of the Scots Greys with one of the 6th Inniskillings were left in front to receive the first shock of the attack.