THE MAIN FIGHT. 365 ^vell-su stained fire.* When this lengthened chain chap. . VI of soldiery had been formed with the Barrier as ' its chief link and centre it constituted the ' Main- nh Period. ' picket line.' General Goldie, however, though not present Oenp.rai ' . , Goldie. for the moment in person at the Barrier, was the supreme commander engaged in this fore-central part of the field. A brigadier from the first with- out any collected brigade, he had succeeded to the command of the 4th Division without for the moment acquiring any actual increase of power ; -f- but he was not the less a general officer ; and irrespectively of his normal command over Haines, and the wing of the 21st Fusiliers, he here made himself a chief of larger authority, by giving fixed purpose to the small bands of soldiery of different regiments who were drawn within the sphere of his power, by wielding them, as occasion required with unfailing good fortune, and, above all, by maintaining the heroic assumption that a picket wall of loose stones, which chanced to be standing in very contact with a hostile army, might be indefinitely defended against it with the help of a few hundred men. In obedience to the orders we have already ob- withdrawal served, the ' 7th L^ger ' had moved gaily across French from the front of the Barrier to join the French 6th of ceutraipart the Line, which was acting on the opposite flank ;
- The presence of 68th men in an organised state near the
Barrier so soon after the false victory of the Second Period is obviously highly creditable to the regiment. + He had become aware of Cathcart's di';ith, and imiiarted the tidings of it to Major Ramsay Stuart.
