Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/279

 THE DEMEANOUR OF ENGLAND. 235 dreary annals of war ; ' ' total disorganisation ; ' chap. ' collapse ; ' ' anarchy ; ' ' human hecatombs ; ' L_ ' every man of any sense sinking into despair ; ' 'twilight settling steadily down into night and ' darkness ; ' ' Serbonian bog of despair ; ' ' the ' British army has perished as an army ; ' ' de- ' struction of the British army ; ' 'the bubble ' has now finally burst, the last chance is gone ; ' ' appalling realities ; ' ' our national reputation ' sacrificed, our past tarnished, and our future ' overclouded ; ' ' England's ill fate, sore cost, ' and, we had almost said, foul dishonour ; ' ' un- ' utterable woe and misery ; ' ' disaster ; ' ' hideous ' catastrophe ; ' ' frightful catastrophe ; ' ' final ' catastrophe ; ' ' chaos come again, night, anarchy, ' and confusion ; ' ' abyss of misery ; ' ' abyss far ' lower, and more awful ; ' ' the doom of nations,' — these were some of the strains in which — Eussia all the while thankfully listening — the great journal chanted our dirge. (2^) To make such wailings appropriate, it was almost essential that England, far from being, as she still was, victorious, should herself sur- render to Nicholas, and be dragged captive into Siberia. Whilst avowing and even preaching despair, invectives 1111 of the the great company undertook to hurl blame ; ' Times • " it/ p T 1 ^g^'^s* Lorn and we have seen that there was one of Lord Ragian. Eaglan's sterling qualities which, however en- nobling, laid him open to mischievous com- ments. He hated all ostentation, but the char- Lord Rag- ian s want latan's ostentation he loathed. If a charlatan of ostenta- tion : general proposes to visit a suffering camp, he