Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/239

 THE COUXSELS OF THE ALLIES. 209 mately, be imparted to several others; that the CHAP. number of people thus legitimately apprised was '_ subject to be a little augmented by the exigencies of the marriage-tie; and that round the large group thus entrusted there always hovered the newsman, eager to hear, determined to tell, his mere presence suggesting a mart where tons of newspaper eulogy could be had for three grains of State secret. So, upon the whole, Lord Eaglan could not but deem it probable that if he were to disclose to the Home Government his desire for an immediate assault, with an intimation that his wishes had been frustrated by General Canrobert and the Engineers both English and French, he would become the object of a brief popular ap- plause in England, but applause of a kind which must be jeopardising to the Alliance and hurtful to the prospects of the war. To one constituted as Lord Eaglan was, it would be quite easy and natural to apprehend all these probable conse- quences, and (as a mere common, evident duty) to avert them by observing silence. It is thus that I account for his reserve. l')Ut the opinions of a commander are some- rmi^a^ia ^ clue: times inferred from the conduct and language of the men who most closely surround him ; and as it happens that General Airey, in this campaign, was constant at the side of Lord Eaglan, and so devoted as to be the last man who would put his mind into a state of — even argumentative — an- tagonism with that of his chief, it is possible that, in the absence of more direct indications, the act VOL. IV. o