Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/121

 KIEL REPRESSED BY TELISSTEI!. 91 ly reached it by a separate process of thought. With all its other priceless advantages, the con- cord thus happily reigning between Pelissier The shield and Lord Eaglan was plainly a shield of great against ° ■, • • LouisNa- strength that well might be used in resistance poieon's °. interference to any further dictation attempted against them from Paris ; and, as though to prepare their agree- ment for service in that special way, the two chiefs reduced it to writing by a fitting exchange of letters. Clinging fast to his much-beloved doctrine, The vain _. ^ T. . it- resistance General Niel continued to urge that the invest- ofNiei ment of Sebastopol — in other words, a campaign fought out with success in the Open — should pre- cede any action attempted against the counter- approaches ; * but the power — the baneful power — he had wielded in Canrobert's time rested then on the authority of the Emperor, and the Emperor himself, as we know, had by this time proved wholly unable to obstruct the fiery Pelissier. ' Knowing nothing of what is going on ' — so Niel wrote to the Minister of War — ' I abstain from ' all reflection. I asked leave to offer some obser- ' vations on the state of the siege, and was told ' that it was not the time.'t Though the deputy of the far-distant monarch was thus almost fiercely repressed, the monarch himself might still try to assert his authority. t Ibid., p. 216. Apparently sorry for his rudeness, Pdlis- sier afterwards sent for Niel, and received him with marked kindness, but did not let him give counsel.
 * Rousset, vol. ii. p. 215.