Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/348

 322 BATTLE OF THE AL:MA. CHAP, aiul they would l)cconic similar to licroos. If '__ they could attain to he tlius thouglit of for a time, they might hope that for a still longer period they would enjoy the immunity and the thousand rewards which nations are accustomed to lavish upon victorious commanders. This was the principle which governed the choice of the man to whose charge, on the day of the Alma, the honour of the French arms was left. He who commanded the army was St Arnaud, formerly Le Eoy, the person suborned by Fleury. Under him in the Crimea there were four Divisions of French infantry. lie who commanded thefir^t of these Divisions was Canrobert. This officer, as I have said, was not without honest titles to military distinction ; but whilst he had a profes- sional repute which would have earned him the approval of even the most loyal of monarchs, l^' had also the qualification which entitled him td the favour of the French Emperor. He had couj- inanded one of the brigades which operated against the gay boulevards on the 4th of December. Th:3 2d Division was commanded by Bo.squet. Bosquet ■was a man without a stain ; but he was the only French General of Division at the Alma who could say that he did not owe his command to the December plot; and since it happened that he w^as left isolated with only one brigade during the whole time when the issue of the battle w^as pending, his presence at the Alma was only an imperfect exception to what was, as it were, the general rule. He who commanded the large