Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/118

 86 canrobert's gloomy state. CHAP. IV. Lord Raglan's comment; and its tend ency to re- lieve his de- spondency. Lord Raglan's power of repressing despond- ency. ' ing at the same time the right of our position ' in front of Balaclava with an equal force by ' a simultaneous movement. He expressed also ' some apprehension that, if this great operation ' should be undertaken, the Allies, occupied as ' they would be by the Siege, might be over- ' powered.' ' Sir Edmund Lyons and myself were surprised 1 to hear him hold such desponding language. I ' ventured to express my opinion that the tone ' of his observations was somewhat serious.' * Whether Canrobert felt, or felt not, that this reception of his anxious forebodings implied a gently veiled censure, he well may have quitted the room a much happier and a much stronger man than when he came in. The greater the diversity of character, sentiment, habit, and social station between any two men in council, the abler will one of them be to allay the other's despondency. It is amongst men ground down to a state of what the French call 'equality' thai panic revels and spreads. ' In those times of trial,' said one who best knew Lord Raglan, ' he ceased to be equal with ' other men.'. . . ' Without dissembling facts, ' he would calmly withhold his assent to all ' gloomy apprehensions, and manfully force at- ' tention to the special business in hand, and ' thus — or rather perhaps by a kind of power March 1855. 1 Secret ' to Secretary of State, 13th
 * on this ridge with 40,000 men, and the ground
 * Despatch marked