Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/50

 18 PETTY SORTIES. CHAP. I. the French in these sorties. Indignation of the French army. Generous concession to its feelin by Osten- Sacken. in safety at home who have never known any such trials, proved outraging — beyond measure outraging — to the feelings, the not unjust pride, and the self-respect of the French. It was only against them that the Eussians put their odd contrivance in force. The expedient, I suppose, was less meant for the exigencies of actual fighting than as one for dealing with soldiers surprised, confused, and distracted by a sudden incursion at night-time; but, be that as it may, the Eussians at one time did certainly use the lasso, and also the 'gaff,' or some tool resembling a boat-hook, as their means of first upsetting or otherwise arresting an adversary, and then so pulling him in as to be able to make him their prisoner. The French were indignant at this measure, denouncing it loudly as one that had never before been em- ployed except against the brute creation ; and certainly it is intelligible that a soldier with his mind duly schooled to meet the event of being killed, wounded, or made prisoner in the ordinary way, should revolt at the thought of being caught by the lasso like a wild horse in Mexico, or — still worse — gaffed and secured like a floundering salmon or trout. The feeling of the French ran so high against ? this abhorred innovation, that General Canrobert under a flag of truce made it the subject of a complaint addressed to the Eussian authorities; and in a kindly, magnanimous spirit of con- cession to the feelings and just pride of a gallant