THE MAIN FIGHT. 131 Biiller's aido-de-camp, Lieutenant Hugh Clif- chap. ford, rode oif at the instant to carry Egerton's L_ word of command down the line of the 77th, and ^*' Period. . Lieutenant from this circumstance there resulted an occur- Hugh 1-11 1 • 1 Clifford's reuce which becomes, so to speak, interposed exploit, between the halt and the volley. Clifford had .scarce reached the extreme left of the four 77th companies, when he saw that the enemy's soldiery were not only there overlapping them, but already turning their flank ; and conceiving that there was not a moment to lose, he rode sword in hand at the neck of the force which had thus thrust its head past our troops, calling out at the same time to such as could hear him, and saying : ' Come ' and charge with me ! ' From the vantage-height of his saddle he per- ciiarge haps had been the first by some moments to per- Nicholson's ceive the enemy's turning movement, but there is th^rrTZ" ground for inferring that Captain Nicholson was both swift to perceive and swift to meet the emer- gency ; for (the other three companies being now almost in the act of effecting their charge) it was presumably under his leadership that the left Hank company broke away in an oblique direction from the rest of the force, and sprang, as Clifford was doing, at the mass of the overfoldiug assail- ants. The horseman with this line of from sixty to seventy foot broke through the opposing files and was received into the midst of the hostile soldiery.*
- For his share in this exploit Lieutenant the Honourable
Hugh Clifford received the Victoria Cross.
