Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/350

 o2-l BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP. Illicit not "be men firm and able in lionest war I . ' against the foreigner ; but also there ^vas no such close similarity between what these men had done in Paris and what they Mere meant to do in the Crimea, as to warrant the notion of entrusting to thera almost exclusively the honour of the French flag. There was a salient point of difference between the boidevards and the hillsides of the Alma, — the Russians were armed. jSTo ! The Power which fought that day by the side of England was not, after all, mighty Prance, — brave, warlike, impetuous Prance ; — it was only that intermittent thing which to-day is, and to- morrow is not ; — it was what people call ' The ' Prench Em})iiv.'* LI. rffpctnf The battle of the Alma seemed to clear the pro- unontiie spccts of tlic Campaign and even of the war. It ITOSPCt-'t S oftiie confirmed to the Allies that militar-y ascendancy over Russia which had been more than half gained already by the valour of the Ottoman soldiery. It lent the current sanction of a victory to the haz- ardous enterprise of the invasion. It ended the l)erils of the march from Kamishlu, and made smooth the whole way to the Belbec. It estab- lished the Allies as invaders in a province of Russia. It did more. It offeied them even Sebas- topol, but always, nevertheless, upon condition that they would lay instant hands on the prize. the same words as now. caiiiiiaign.
 * Tliis was first piilili.'^hcd in January 1SG3, and in exactly