Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/304

 272 RECALL OF THE KERTCII EXPEDITION. CHAP, inferior quality which could have no preten- !_. sions to stand against any such forces as our Highlanders, or the Koyal Marines, and that before the coming up from elsewhere of any strong bodies of Eussians, our people (taking care against Cavalry, as already he had warned them to do) might complete their brief, simple task — the task of destroying or maiming a string of coast batteries lying all of them open in rear. Still, Lord Kaglan, as we have seen, did not force the adventurous step on his lieutenant ; and, though arming him with power to hazard it, did this only on condition that both he and the admiral with him should themselves feel im- pelled towards the enterprise. That the granting of even this sanction was a venturesome act I do not affect to deny ; but the enlightenment we have received since the morn- ing of the 4th of May, when the letter to our admiral was written, gives us much better reason for confidence than people can generally have when speaking in the potential mood ; for we see nearly all the conditions under which Baron Wrangel would have been called upon to act if Sir George in concert with Lyons had thought fit to go on with the enterprise ; * and all that seems undetermined is a question how far the shoal v;tters would have suffered our navy to act — by either gunboats or otherwise — in repres- sion of cavalry masses coming down the smooth slopes of the steppe, and undertaking to operate
 * See last footnote.