Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/141

 WAY OV MINISTERING TO THE ARMIES. 97 had the ascendant in council, they indeed would chap. have saved the Allies from calamities and '. — troubles unnumbered, but not, it is plain, by- causing any road to be made. On the contrary, their foresight would have transcended all mat- ter of discussion about the roads, for (by show- ing that, if siege -like operations were undertaken, the English army could take no combative part in them until it had constructed a metalled road eight or nine miles in length) they would have reopened the whole question of respiting Sebastopol, and forced their hearers instead to seize the place at once, thereby winning (with the coveted prize) a direct and unbroken com- munication between the quay at Portsmouth and our troops in the heart of Sebastopol. Whilst himself inclined to the measure of attacking the fortress at once. Lord Eaglan promptly discovered that he could not make his own wish prevail against Science allied with the French ; and thereupon — avoiding dispute — he fell loyally into the plan of undertaking a cannonade with siege -guns.(^2) g^^t before adopting the measure, he apparently became well assured that, although not so easy and simple as the one his own judgment approved, it still would achieve the fall of Sebastopol before the close of October ;(i^) and accord- ingly, the expectation thus formed became one of the motive forces which governed his course of action. That this prospect was falsified by the subsequent march of events we long ago saw ; but in council, at the time I am speaking VOL. YII. G