Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/271

 TROUBLED COUNSELS. 239 Bruat showed indeed that (as judged by its chap. writer) the Corps of Eeserve would be ready to !_ take ship at Constantinople on the 10th of May ; but whither it was to be borne when embarked, and when, and where, and how it was to be brought into real co-operation with Canrobert's army, no men in the Crimea yet knew. Accord- ing to Canrobert, and all his assembled advisers, ' it was fitting to wait for the commencement of ' operations by the corps of reserve.' * If, how- ever, brought into close harmony with the design of Niel and his Emperor, the postponement would be one carried on to that fondly imagined time when (after a brilliant campaign that was not to be even begun until some — as yet — unknown period) Sebastopol would be on all sides invested. Nor indeed was a general assault the only canrobert's measure postponed until that imagined time, scope. General Canrobert desired that meanwhile the Allies should even abstain from the easier, the narrower task of storming the outworks thrown out in advance of the fortress ; and accordingly, when, on the 30th, Lord Eaglan proposed to Canrobert an assault on the counter-approaches, he encountered a decisive refusal.! It was thus that after an interval of seeming The old freedom which lasted some forty -eight hours, fastened' General Canrobert once more submitted to have u t Lord Raglan to Secretary of State, Secret, May 5, 1855. Experience soon afterwards proved the wisdom of Lord Rag- lan's proposal.
 * See ante, p. 234.