Excited probably by the sight of the glorious feat achieved by the "heavies," and burning to see it emulated by his comrades of the light regiments, he so gave the order to Lord Lucan that the latter conceived it to be his duty to charge.

The order was simply to advance, but when Lord Lucan asked him, "How far are we to advance ?" he replied, pointing to the Russians, "There are the enemy and there are the guns." Lord Lucan, conceiving that his orders were absolute, ordered Lord Cardigan to advance upon the guns.

Lord Cardigan saw at once the desperate nature of the enterprise.

The guns were a mile and a half distant, backed by the whole Russian army.

The line to be ridden over was swept not only by the fire of the guns he was about to charge, but by those of other batteries on the flank.