Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/244

 200 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, when thus for duty's sake charging himself to ' impart mournful truths, he certainly did not break out into much lamentation ; and, on the contrary, after showing, if he could, any cir- cumstances of a more hopeful sort tlian those with which he had dealt, he liked to add a short sentence which, although of course kept, and kept strictly within the limits of truth, was still so buoyantly worded that, when coming under the eyes of an ardent and hopeful reader, it might tend to chase away gloom occasioned by ugly tidings. When, for instance, he imparts a dire fact, carrying with it a world of misfortune, and says : ' The roads are in a dreadful state, ' not only on the Ridge, but on the way to ' Balaclava, and the passage of wheels, if the ' carriage be loaded, is next to impossible,' he immediately adds : ' Everybody is as busy as a ' bee in and in the neighbourhood of Balaclava, ' and efforts are making to get stores up by men ' and horses,' thus using such words that, by the subtle power of language gliding in alongside of harsh facts, they somehow picture a scene of animated, successful labour. Effect of the And the Duke of Newcastle (the recipient of upon the the dcspatches thus framed), was not so statis- Duke of tically minded as to have the habit of separating plain statements of fact from the adjacent lan- guage. Far from being a soldier who slept, as Napoleon did, with the ' morning states ' under his pillow, he seems not to have schooled himself into a due appreciation of tidings conveyed by dry words and figures. Accustomed himself to