Of Lord Bingham’s time with the Russians there is no written trace. Neither the Public Record Office nor the National Army Museum has any account or reference to an account. Nor does the family. Or rather, it must be supposed they do not; following the disappearance of the 7th Earl of Lucan in 1974 after the murder of the family’s nanny, access became difficult. But when Cecil Woodham-Smith was researching for her celebrated work on the charge of the Light Brigade, The Reason Why (London, 1953), she made a full inventory of the Lucan archive at the family seat in Castlebar, Co. Mayo. There is nothing in that inventory relating to Bingham’s time with the Russians. Princess Lieven’s remarks in the letters to her brother are in fact the best contemporary references.
There is a footnote, so to speak, to the action at Pravadi, which Hervey and Fairbrother witness from a prone position in the forest, as ‘through a glass darkly’ – the horseman’s throwing his cloak at the feet of the Vizier. Moltke relates the story. The Turk batteries had pounded the Russian defences for hours, and the Vizier sent a dehli, a fanatic, to examine the effect of the fire. The dehli galloped to within fifty yards of the walls, and although hundreds of rounds were apparently fired at him he returned unhurt to report that ‘everything was as it was’ (bir schei yok). The Vizier, who had expected a report of several breaches at least – indeed that the walls had been entirely battered down – would not believe that the garrison was still within and resisting, and accused the dehli of not having ridden close enough. The dehli answered by throwing down his bullet-riddled cloak as proof that he had.
Finally, to obviate letters of enquiry or complaint to the publishers: Rule’s serves very fine steak and oyster puddings still, but at number thirty-five, not, as in Hervey’s day, at number thirty-eight.
1 Although now applied almost exclusively to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean – Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan – the term ‘Levant’ referred originally (as here) to all Mediterranean lands east of Italy. It derives from Middle French (‘rising’) – ‘the land where the sun rises’ – and could be qualified by ‘near’ and ‘far’.
2 The second of the two regiments of the brigade, the 13th Light Dragoons, was one of the antecedent regiments of that which the author had the honour to command.
3 He died in 1891, aged ninety.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allan Mallinson is a former infantry and cavalry officer of thirty-five years' service worldwide.
As well as the Matthew Hervey series of novels, he is the author of Light Dragoons, a history of four regiments of British Cavalry, one of which he commanded, and The Making of the British Army, a history of the Army's origins from the battle of Edgehill to the current conflict in Afghanistan.
He also writes on defence matters for The Times and the Daily Telegraph, and is a regular reviewer for The Times, the Spectator and the Literary Review.
Also by Allan Mallinson
Fiction featuring Matthew Hervey
A CLOSE RUN THING
THE NIZAM’S DAUGHTERS1
A REGIMENTAL AFFAIR
A CALL TO ARMS
THE SABRE’S EDGE
RUMOURS OF WAR
AN ACT OF COURAGE
COMPANY OF SPEARS
MAN OF WAR
WARRIOR
Non-fiction
THE MAKING OF THE BRITISH ARMY
