Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/269

 PELISS1EK IN HIS TIME OF ADVERSITY. 239 batteries no longer shattered and silent, but re- chap. IX. stored to their original strength, thus bringing down on his people the natural consequences of action so lawless and wild in the shape of repulses endured by all his attacking columns, and painful losses of men ; whilst also, by the very discom- fiture thus wildly incurred, he wrung from the English commander those unsparing endeavours to support him, which proved to be not only vain, but destructive to numbers of our men. And again, whatever the cause (whether temporary lessening of his accustomed brain - power, or simply want of good opportunity), it was not P^lissier's fate to be able to display in the action any signs of warlike ability. Under all these conditions, the Emperor Louis increased Napoleon now found himself armed by events act S with better means of extinguishing his fierce, con- acquired tumacious general than any he had wielded before, Emperor. and he quickly began to exert the augmented power that thus had come into his hands; first harshly demanding with a dry, grave reserve, explanations, and full, plain accounts from the baffled, yet still proud commander, and after- wards even proceeding — though not with sus- tained perseverance — to remove him or try to remove him from the command of the army. But Pelissier was a man very strong in ad- Peiissier-s versity; and it even would seem that, although adro^y. his full use of the powers which Nature had given him might be interrupted during several days by what are called ' worrying ' troubles, his