Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/268

 224 THE WINTER TROUBLES CHAP. IX. liim to his Tukermaii venture, and therefore he happily falters. Are you going to explain to him that this faltering of his is a huge mistake, that our army is in the grave, or in hospital, and that his awe, however well-founded when he reckoned his Inkerman losses, would be now like fearing a ghost ? ' It is true that deserters and spies may be telling him, and telling him largely of the mor- tality and the sickness afflicting our camp, but they also perhaps apprise him that reinforce- ments are landing, and that, somehow, at the English Headquarters there is an air of routine and composure which few would judge to be possible, unless Lord llaglan thought himself strong enough to withstand a determined attack. You must see the almost priceless advantage that there is in that veil. Are you going to tear it away ? Are you going to assure the enemy that that formidable nonchalance appa- rent in the Headquarters Staff results only from the pride or the carelessness of a number of well-bred officers, and ought not to deter him from making — from making whilst yet there is time — a second Inkerman venture ? ' It is true, very true, that in England the defects of our laws and the faults of our ad- ministrations are habitually corrected by public outcry — by public outcry, continued during periods that always are long, and sometimes indeed are extended to thirty or forty years ; but it is not by such insistance that in this distressing conjuncture, any actual good can be