Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/153

 M'lIKX ABAXDONED BY THE AII.MV. 123 son, Prince ^lentscliikof'i' did what man conld tu ciiAP, counterwork the advantage which Nature had. '__ oflered to the defenders, and prevent them fronr bringing the united resources of the Nortli Side and the South to the seat of danger. In a country where men's minds had beru weakened by liabits of overweening respect for official superiors, and where, also, the bondage of a vast, yet straitened military system perversely kept up in peace-time had done much to benumb the warlike prowess of the nation, it was hardly to be imagined beforehand that the error of the chief would be neutralised by the devotion, the ])atriotism, and the wise disobedience of a sub- ordinate. Entrusted with the command of the North Side at a moment when that was the ground believed to be in peril, Korniloff now saw the Allies so plainly committing themselves to the enterprise of attacking the South Side, that the North, for the time, was clearly safe. So far as concerned the charge committed to him, he could breathe freely ; and if he thought only of obedience to orders, he might henceforth stand at his ease until such time as his absent chief might cast upon him some new duty. That, as matter of course, tb.e commander of the North Side would so act, Nachimoff did not doubt. But Korniloff was of that noble calling which lasresoue 1 n I 1 1 .11 ■ ^ 1*° lireak seems to aefend those who lollow it Irom the awayfiom theu: : stuntnig power of a military despotism continu- ing through long years of peace ; and, moreover, he had so much greatness of mind, and was of so