112 r.ATTLH OF Tin; Al.MA. CHAP, lie stood, lie ought not to obey the uidcr. This '. answer the aide-de-camp carried back to General Buller. Ikiller was a near-sighted man;* and being, it would seem, distrustful of what had been his own impression of the enemy's attitude, ho acquiesced in Colonel Egcrton's decision, allowed the 77th to remain where it was, and not only refrained from advancing with the 88th, but threw the regiment into square, as though it were about to be attacked by cavalry, f XXIV. st.ite of So when the men of Codrington's force looked the icdjubt. back to wlience they came, and when also they looked to their left rear, they saw they were alone — still alone — upon th(> liillside. Then such of them as had the instinct of war began to under- stand that the blood of their comrades had been shed in vain.
- It hns already been snid that Sir Gcorf^e Brown, wlio coni-
inandcd the Division, ami Codrington, who commanded ils 1st brigade, were both of them iiear-siglitcd. The Liglit Division was the force wliieh had to feel and fight its way to the key of the position ; and it was an error to allow it to be carried into action by tliree near-siglitcd generals. f It seems that the order to fonn square was carried (o nil the three regiments of the brigade, including the 19th, and that a wing of the 77th was at one moment conifilyiiig with it. The iidicers of the 19th, however, were apparently so convinced of the unfitness of the order, that they deliberately disobeyed it. Lieutenant Lidwill of the 6th company was told to pass down the word to 'square on the left centre company,' but he says: — • I .saw it was madness, and would not pass on the order to the ' 7th and 8th companica.'
