Arnaud declared
pursuit impossible, and this, the first fatal error in the campaign,
allowed the beaten general to draw off his shattered battalions.
But, if the allied leaders rejected the more abiding and substantial
fruits of victory, they did not disdain the intoxicating but empty
glories of an ovation from their troops. The generals were everywhere
received with loud acclaims.
Deafening cheers greeted Lord Raglan as he rode slowly down the line.
The cry was taken up by battalion after battalion, and went echoing
along--the splendid, hearty applause of men who were glorifying their
own achievements as well.
There was joy on the face of every man who had come out of the fight
unscathed--the keen satisfaction of success, gloriously but hardly
earned. Warm greetings were interchanged by all who met and talked
together. Thus Lord Raglan and Sir Colin Campbell, both Peninsular
veterans, shook hands in memory of comradeship on earlier fields. Few
indeed had thus fought together before; but none were less cordial in
their expressions of thankfulness and cordial good-will. They told
each other of their adventures in the day--its episodes, perils,
narrow, hair-breadth escapes! they inquired eagerly for friends; and
then, as they learnt gradually the whole terrible truth, the awful
price at which victory had been secured, moments that had been radiant
grew overcast, and short-lived gladness fled.
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