Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/442

 412 THE CANNONADE OF CM A I', navy slioukl be made to suffer. I'rauce watched, XIII. L_ with the knowledge that, in matter of naval ascendant, our loss must needs be her gain. But also there were reasons of another kind for taking full care that the momentous duty of upholding our naval renown should not be made second to any ephemeral policy. The expedient of eliciting all sorts of labour ashore from the generous devotion of the sailor had been carried, if not to the verge of what is tolerable, at least to the limit of what prudence could sanction ; for, after all, the main covenant of the man-of-war's man is a covenant to fight, not a pledge to attend fighting men : and, it being of especially high moment that the labours thus obtained from our seamen should not be fol- lowed by measures calculated to injure the war- like renown of the service, it was unfortunate that the Admiral should have to set his fleet to the business of effecting a mere diversion for the land forces, when he knew all the time that, how- ever advantageous his intervention might prove to the besieging armies, yet, so far as concerned our navy, the end to which he found himself driving was a sure and foreseen discomfiture — nay, a discomfiture foreseen with such clearness that the approach of night was deliberately looked to beforehand as a plausible pretext for hauling off.* Up to the point of determining I * That, as we saw, was Admiral Hamelin's suggestion. See the postscript to Diindas's midnight letter, ante, sec. ii. of tlii» chapter ; and acceded to by Diuidas, ibid.