Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/277

 THE EMPEKOK'S PLAN. 245 were by many deemed all but impregnable, our chap. Government seemed to approve, and at all events, ! - expressed no dislike of this part of the plan ; Q) obfecfedto but did not of course prematurely, and without Govem- consulting Lord Eaglan, send out any peremptory men ' orders for carrying it into effect. With respect to the task reserved for his ' army ' of Diversion,' the Emperor's project was this : — By the marching of the 45,000 French troops withdrawn from before Sebastopol over a distance of some 70 miles, and the arrival of the steamers from the Bosphorus with the reserve force of 25,000, his army of 70,000 men was to be gath- TheEm- ered at and near the distant port of Aloushta, on afrTgai^d . the ' 2d the south-east coast of the Crimea, was thence to • army of reconnoitre the ground, was (if then the advance should seem feasible) to ascend from the shore to the mountains, to move up and over the shoulder of the lofty Tchatir Dagh by way of the Ay en Pass, was thence to march on Simferopol, and at length, in co-operation with Lord Eaglan (already victorious, on its left), was to overthrow all Eus- sian forces collected on the north of Sebastopol, and so complete the investment.* If following this plan of campaign Lord Eaglan should be storming the Mackenzie Heights, and the Emperor at the same time filing through the Ayen Pass with his ' army of Diversion,' the two commanders would be separated from one another As will be afterwards seen, I have before rne several expositions . of the plan in its successive stages of development.
 * Lord Paiimure to Lord Raglan, Private, 20th April 1855.