Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/50

 24 BATTLE OF THE ALMA. CHAP, avert the danger of misuuderstaiulings, he had . L_ already made it his maxim that there was hardly any danger so great as the danger of controversy. AVhether in any even small degree the English General had been brought to share the opinion entertained of jT. St Arnaud in the French capi- tal and in the French army, the world will never know. Of a certainty, Lord Eaglan dealt as though he held it to be a clear gain to be able to avoid entrusting the Marshal with a Icnowledj^e of what our army wodd be likely to undertake ; but my belief is that this, his seemingly guarded method, was not so much based upon anything v/liich may have come to his ears from Paris or from the French camp, but rather upon his desire to ward off controversy, and upon his true native English dislike of all premature planning. He was so sure of his troops, and so conscious of his own power to act swiftly when the occasion might come, that, although he was now within half a march of the enemy's assembled forces, he did not at all long to ruflle his mind with projects — with projects for the attack of a position not hitherto reconnoitred. M. St Arnaud's plan of turning the enemy's left was to be executed by the French army, with the aid of the shipping ; and the part which the English land-forces should take in the action was a matter distinct. But for this, also, the French commander and his military counsellors had care- fully taken thought. To illustrate the operations which he proposed,