Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/169

 HIS SUCCESSIVE MISTAKES. 139 lessness and haste not excused by any sound war- CHAP. like reason, or even any reason at all. On the 10th of June, General Pelissier was be- i° u th e of full lieved to be still, as before, in full accord with ^cordbe- Lord Eaglan ; and, meeting in conference, the dele- JJf^J^ gate generals of the French and the English com- **&**■ manders then concurred in approving and framing k plan of attack which was to include the town front ; * but Pelissier afterwards chose to discard Pflissier ' discarding that part of the scheme;! and the enemy was the idea of t ' * assaulting thus to be spared from that very assault — an as- ^ o e n t t own sault of the Flagstaff Bastion — which more than all else he had dreaded. Assuming — though not on good grounds— that if his troops should lay hold of the Flagstaff Bastion, they could and would enter the town, Pelissier got to imagine (as Oanrobert had imagined before him) that dispers- ing themselves through the streets, and there, for a while running riot, they would lapse into an uncontrolled state, bringing thus on themselves, to begin with, but afterwards on the besiegers at large, some grave disaster.! He therefore re- solved, in antagonism to Lord Raglan's opinion, and to that of, besides, some French generals, in- cluding General Niel — that his attacks should be confined to the Faubourg. He so resolved, though the French engaged before the town front had sapped up to within a short distance of the Dacres, given in Journal Royal Engineers, vol. ii. p. 286 et sej. •f- See his despatch, Rousset, vol. ii. p. 254. t Lord Raglan (whose means of knowing were trustworthy) o Lord Panmure, June 19, 1855.
 * Plan signed by Generals Niel, Thiry, Harry Jones, and