Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/149

 SECRET TERMS OF NIEL'S MISSION. 117 — persistently held back by its sovereign in fur- chap. therance of a secret design. — The Emperor concerted his measures with General General Niel, an engineer officer of ' high stand- ing and repute' who, though not having yet taken part in the Eastern campaign, had still brought himself to form on the subject some strongly rooted opinions. So far as concerned that past era which ex- ms opin- ions on tlic tended from the victory of the Alma to the open- subject of ^. . the wai- ing of trenches against Sebastopol, his opinions in the were of a kind which — in deference to general accord — may now be treated as sound. He con- sidered that the Allies had gone far astray when they wilfully restored to the enemy his captured line of communication, and — instead of breaking into Sebastopol — resolved to assail it by siege without first investing the place. Fully granting the errors thus charged against the Allies, it did not of necessity follow that, after all they had done — after giving back to the enemy his strong Mackenzie Heights, and for months at the cost of huge sacrifices going on with the siege — the wisest course they could take was to act, as it were, penitentially, and try to retrace their false steps. Niel, however, entertained no such doubt. He believed that by simple resort to what he considered fit means, Sebastopol might surely be taken, whilst also he firmly maintained that, without resort to those means, it could never be taken at all. In order to carry Sebastopol, the Allies, he declared, must invest it.