Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/123

 PELISSIER PASSING INTO ACTION. 93 Proceeding on the same day towards action of chap. a kind strictly opposite to the course thus enjoined, '. — Pelissier thus telegraphed to Paris : — ' I am to see of piuS ' Lord Eaglan to-day (with whom, by the way, I ' am in perfect accord), in order to make the final ' dispositions for the assault which is to put in ' our power the White Redoubts, the Green Mam- ' elon, and the Quarry in front of the Great Redan. ' According to my present reckoning, I shall com- ' mence this operation on the 7th, and I shall ' push it on unrelentingly with the utmost ' vigour.'* The telegram from Pelissier was despatched, it would seem, at an hour when Louis Napoleon's peremptory orders of the same day had not reached the French camp ; and their subsequent arrival elicited a few barren words in reply, but wrought no change at all in the purpose of this fierce, stubborn commander. His barren, evasive words ran : — ' When I shall be able to do so in ' concert with our allies, I will execute your in- ' structions of the 5th in so far as concerns action ' in the open field, which enters, as I have told ' you, into my own combinations. At this mo- ' ment, cholera, pressing heavily on the Sardinian ' Army, makes it immovable. General Alexander ' la Marmora has succumbed to it.'t f Translated from the copy in French handed by Pelissier to Lord Raglan on the 8th of June. The copy is headed : — ' Copie ' de la reponse faite par le General Pelissier li la Depeche du ' Ministre de la Guerre, en date du 5 Juin ; ' but the letter of the 5th was from the Emperor personally.
 * Rousset, vol. ii. p. 232.