Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/281

 GENERAL P^LISSIEIt. 251 ins at all for stratagems, 'diversions,' or feints, chap. Eevering the ascertained principles of the warlike — - — Art, and keeping his mind in a state which en- sured its consent (if his judgment so willed it) to terrible sacrifices, he instinctively sought to prevail by direct means, and by sheer force of character. His reluctance to bend aside from any design once formed had a tendency, of course, to prevent him from showing in action any nimbleness of mind ; so that hardly on the spur of the moment would he seize newly found op- portunities with the requisite promptitude, or alter at once any project, because of a sudden confronted by grave though unforeseen obstacles. Men disposed to believe that the key to Pelis- sier's character was a firmness so rigid as to be verging on blind, mulish obstinacy, will find their theory met by the changes we saw him effect when under the schooling of adversity. But he even then clung to one of his errors — that of declining to assault the Flagstaff Bastion — with a sinister tenacity, not improbably sustained by the fact that Niel on that question held strongly an opposite opinion ; and it still may perhaps remain true that the paramount quality of this fiery com- mander was, after all, — strength. It was after the period covered by this account of the war that Pelissier won his renown — renown due to one who, if only reducing by siege-work one part of a fortress, had still done enough by great qualities to govern events, and bring a bloody war towards its close.