Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/105

 COUNCIL OF WAU AT SKCASTOPOL. . 5 The assembled adniiials and ca])taius received chap. the proposal of Koniilolf in blank silence ; and ' it presently appeared that, although there were iloirby'iii* some few who assented to the proposal, the rest '^"""^■''• disapproved it, and Avere already bending thei)- thoughts to a measure of a very diffei'ent kind. All probably knew beforehand that this otiier nieasuie was to be proposed, and that it had the sanction of Prince Mentschikoff, the Commander- in-Chief. The peiiod of Koiniloffs great ascendancy was close at hand, but it had not yet come ; and, great as we shall see him to be in the days which were approaching, it may be acknowledged that, whatever good there might be in his desperate l)lan of attack, if peremptorily ordered and liercely l)usbed through to the end by a resolute com- mander, it was hardly one which could be usefully submitted to a numerous assembly of admirals and captains who knew that it was disapproved by the Commander-in-Chief. And the reasonings by which Korniloff tried to sup})ort his proposal were surely weak. Because the Allied fleets kept no formal array, they were not therefore in confusion. There was always, at the least, one vessel of war standing sentry over the prisoned lleet of the Eussians ; and the ships of the Allies, though somewhat dispersed, were well enough linked by signals and by their great steam-power. Even before the landing, when an irruption into the midst of the crowded and busy armada could have been best attempted, the seamen of Dundas's