Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/133

 WHEN ABANDONED BY THE AKMY. 103 command of all the forces, Lotli naval and mili- chap tavy, which were to operate on the North Side. :_. This North Side was the ground where the whole weight of the victorious invaders was ex- pected to i'all ; and any attempt to defend it was regarded by Korniloff as a merely forlorn under- taking ; but, for that very reason the more, he was swift to accept the command ; and those who knew him the best ascribe his joy at the time to a heroic exaltation of spirit which hardly needed the prop of any hope this side the grave. Without holding supreme command, but act- ing as chief of the staff, Vice-Admiral Korniloff, for a period of some five years, had had the main direction of affairs in the Black Sea fleet; and it was during that time that he had been able to engender the zeal, the trustful affection, which now, in the hour of a great disaster, brought round him a band of undaunted seamen resolved to stand by his side in the void which the army had left. He was destined to be cut off when the period of his sway over events had lasted scarce twenty -six days ; but this space included a time when the failing of the organised forces which people had hitherto trusted made room once more in the world — nay, made room in so straitened a place as a Russian garrison town — for a man having strength of his own. The wars undertaken by Eussia having always ]j(en waged against nations of other .creeds or other churches, the religion and the patriotism of the people had been blended, as we saw, into