Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/324

 294 THE DEATH OF LORD RAGLAN. CH a i'. : in the difficulties and dangers to which we may '— ' be called.' immediate Even then, whilst he spoke from the heart, he army re- also could speak from experience — experience suit ins from showing that England, by the death of her Gen- eral, had been all at once robbed of her weight in the Anglo-French Councils of war. Abrupt We learnt what hope there was that, in com- abandon- l mentof the pliance with a demand addressed to the French negotiation ' lv.nl Rag- lan's death heha( i i, on the 21st of June, our troops would be either opened with ' r Peiissier. relieved altogether from their wrongly allotted task of attacking the Great Redan, or else find themselves enabled to attack it under fitting con- ditions, but also saw reasons for judging that the prospect of this happy change depended on the life of Lord Raglan. The event of the 28th of June was pursued by its apprehended consequence with astonishing promptitude, for — even within a few hours of the English commander's death — our people gave up their demand, and submitted once more to that distribution of siege-work which was fated, as it had been before, to become a cause — plainly foreseen — of fresh disappointments and losses.( 4 ) Unable to divine other reasons for the extra- ordinary step of not only abandoning the resolve announced to General Niel on the 21st of June, but allowing themselves to declare this abandon- ment on the very morrow of Lord Raglan's death, I am led to believe that our military authorities must have acted in haste, whilst still suffering