Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/57

 PERSISTENCY OB PELISSIER. 27 CHAPTER III. PELISSIER FIRMLY PURSUING HIS CHOSEN PLANS OF ATTACK IN DEFIANCE OF LOUIS NAPOLEON. The fighting thus brought by the French to a chap. in. victorious issue was induced, as we saw, by the ! — stress of the enemy's challenge, and could not have well been arrested by any orders from Paris ; but Pelissier had already made choice — made rmpending strife be- choice. as he stated, ' irrevocably ' of a well- tween Louis ° Napoleon defined plan of attack; and this, it was only ami rais- . sier. too certain, his sovereign would forbid, or ob- struct. There followed sharp strife. On the one side, The Em- -r-i ii peror. contended an Emperor— an Emperor armed by new laws with authority to direct from afar the commander-in-chief of his army, and not only served by the magic of the electric wires, but also by a strong, zealous envoy established at the seat of war. On the other side, he who con- P6iii»ier. tended was only a general ; but the general was Pelissier; and already we know the strength of his fiery, resolute nature. Marshal Vaillant, the chief of the War Depart vaniant