Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/150

 106 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, have been better and more wisely applied to the ' business of completing that essential, that vitally essential, road upon which the supply of the army was depending. And supposing that the work ill the trenches had really had no other use or purpose than that of advancing the siege, this criticism would indeed have been just ; but the actual truth is that the siege-works, though aggressive in their original purpose, were now beyond measure precious as means to be used for defence ; {^^) whilst besides, the apparent perseverance of the Allies in their siege was the best of all possible expedients for masking their weakness, and so perhaps warding off a second Inkerman onslaught. Under that altered aspect of the question, it begins to seem clear that for even so momentous an object as that of constructing the needed road, Lord Eaglan would not have been warranted in receding from his position as an active and ap- parently earnest besieger. Yet without so reced- ing, he could not spare men for the road. Still, again and again there stands forward the irrepressible truth that this business of the road was one of life and death to many of our soldiery, if not indeed to the army ; and upon the whole, my conclusion is that it would have been right for Lord Eaglan to force his way out of the meshes by a peremptory appeal to the Trench. For after all, the true policy of the Allies, when broadly surveyed, coincided with the dictates of justice ; and what justice demanded was that the selection of those works which were to be from