Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/327

 TO MILITARY EXAMINATION. 295 paigning iu the open field, the difference between chap. estimate and reality would already appear to be ! one of no less than 45,000 men, and the next glance at these hard realities would show that of the 30,000 Turks who were to concur with the French in guarding the siege-works not a man would in fact be there present. There was no reason why the French Emperor should not have set himself free from the error of 15,000, and the two enormous errors of 30,000 each, before constructing his plan. If taking that simple precaution, he would have seen the imagined French Corps he meant to collect at Aloushta reduced all at once from 65,000 to a strength of but 5000 men. When enquiry pushed close had thus shown that, to defend the position before Sebastopol and the ports of supply, there would be needed — not merely 60,000, as provided by the Emperor, but — 90.000 men, that Omar Pasha, instead of contributing 30,000 men (as Louis Napoleon as- sumed) towards the work of the siege, would spare no troops at all for the purpose ; and finally, when General Canrobert, disobeying his sovereign, refused to liberate the English army for field operations by taking charge of their trenches, there sank from under this project the basis on which it had rested, and the structure of course fell to pieces. The French Commander indeed reported to his statement Government that he and Omar Pasha would im- ro y beruhat mediately prepare to take the field ; but few, I sup- going to