Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/45

 RESISTANCE CONTINUED. 15 this war, and could not hope to excuse himself for chap. any disastrous fault by alleging instructions re- ' ceived from his sovereign Louis Napoleon. Be all this as it may, the French Kmperor at the time we have reached was about to be plying his distant and strong-willed general with cen- sure, with indignant reproaches, with peremptory words of command ; so that, whilst we are observ- ing the conflict between the Allies and the Czar, we also shall have to be witnessing the interior strife going on between Napoleon the Third and Pelissier. The Emperor, as we saw, had in Niel a delegate long since established at the French Headquarters whose obedience to his master was supported by his own real convictions, and a strenuous desire to press, to force their adoption on him who now ruled the French army ; but it would seem that this aid on the whole did not bring a real strength to the Emperor ; for the presence of a general undertaking to criticise and even oppose the measures of the Commander-in-Chief was beyond measure exasperating to the fiery Pelissier, and by acting thus on his temper may plainly have strengthened his will.