Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/87

 THE RENEWED EXPEDITION TO KERTCH. 57 ent of remonstrating against their offences with chap. . IV. either General d'Antemarre himself or any other 1_ French officer was a tender matter, and danger- ^tudiy ous, whilst also in general likely to prove, as dcuwT* we have seen, wholly barren. Sir George did not of course deserve blame for omitting to use a power with which he was not really armed. The Quarantine Station of Kertch was not comment ..n only well separated from the rest of the town, course of . ■. ,, „ , , , . action with but so spacious as to be capable 01 holding some respect to 5000 men; and Brown's plan of posting in it a orders in • -i n TT °, Kertch. foot regiment with a score or Hussars was good so far as it went; but in mercy to the unfor- tunate inhabitants, no less than for the advan- tage of the invaders, it ought to have been rendered effective by establishing authority in the town, and promptly restoring order. It is true that Sir George's idea of regarding Friendly the violent Tartars as people in arms against ofTomeof Eussia was not without a semblance of war- ranty ; for the coming of War — beloved War — to their long -conquered, Czar -ridden steppe had roused in these men grand emotions deriv- ing from the blood of their ancestors ; so that — touching, pathetic recurrence to forefathers great in the saddle ! — a band of them, all poorly armed, yet mounted, every one of them, on ponies, if not bigger horses, came riding over the steppe, came enlisting themselves, they imagined, for war to the knife against Eussia, with before them the rapturous prospect of recovering their old independence. They were men in a dream,