Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/238

 208 THE COUXSELS OF THE ALLIES. C II A P VII. his wishes overruled : his reserve on the subject; that the next best course for liim was a fiank and earnest ixdoplion of the measure recommended by the Frencli ns well as by the head of his own engineers ; but also he determined aj^parently to do all he truthfully could towards concealing the difference of opinion which had arisen between General Canrobert and liiniself. Not only did he avoid all recurrence to his words, but he even so comported himself as to wai'd off from camp the idea of his having been overruled by tlic French.* Nor was this all. I include the whole period from the battle of the Alma to the time now reached by my narrative, when I say that, with a refined and thoughtful loyalty, Mhich was char- acteristic of his nature, Lord Piaglan withheld from the Home Government all such disclosures of opinion as might sliow him to be more enter- prising and more in favour of summary methods than the men who ruled at the French Head- quarters-i' He could not but kno^■ that, what- ever he might write to the Secretary of State, whether in the form of 'secret despatch ' or private note, would necessarily, and indeed legiti- remember that in curruiit conversation the proposals for an a.ssault used always to be attributed to Cathcart, never to Lord Kaglan. Cathcart's name helped to mask the truth. t The two lines written at night on the F.(dbec (footnote, ' In- vasion of the Crimea,' vol. iii. of Cabinet Edition, chap, v.) were probably an unpremeditated and almost unintentional deviation. Notwithstanding the restraint which he generally imposed upon himself, Lord Itaglan could not altogether disguise his percep- tion of the evil which was resulting from the plan of giving the enemv a respite. Proof of this is given in the Appendix.
 * Those who were in the English cainp at tlu- time will