“Calm yourself!” Cameron grabbed the youth by his shoulder and turned him around. “You’re a British officer, not some schoolboy! Get back to your men where you belong!”
“The savages!” the ensign repeated.
Watching through narrowed eyes, the men of the 78th shook their collective heads.
“The poor wee bugger’s lost his nerve,” Chisholm said.
“Stand ready, 78th.” Lieutenant Cameron was as calm as if he was on the parade ground in Inverness. “It seems as if the men on our left have collapsed. The Highlanders will prepare to receive an attack.”
A couple of years previously, an attack by Indians on a column of British redcoats would have spread panic. The tactics were unexpected, the enemy unrelenting and the surprise total. Now the British were veterans. They knew what they were facing and
