Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/280

 236 THE WINTER TROUBLES. OH A P. chooses a time when he knows improvement is ripe, comes clattering up to the ground with a great cavalcade at his heels, shows himself in his well-known costume, seems to give a huge number of orders, seems to crush one or two hapless functionaries with ferocious displeasure, calls up some (before chosen) soldier, tells the man he remembers him well at the battle of the Spheres, says he means to look out for him again on the field of Armageddon, gives him either a cross or some coins, and then gallops off, well assured that, by the help of his salaried glorifiers acting vigorously upon human credu- lity, he will pass for a chief who has almost wrought miracles by ' the eagle glance of his eye,' and the irresistible might of his will. His way of For the performance of any such comedy, transacting, , "^ '' business. Whether useful or not, Lord Eaglan was by nature disqualified. Every time that he moved from his quarters, he had before him the object of transacting real business, unconnected with imposture or show ; and the greater part of his toil was toil at the desk — toil engrossing many hours of each day, with, besides, no small part of each night. But to read the despatches, the letters, the minutes, the memoranda, the orders resulting from all this labour is to see that in every line, the commander's written utterance is an utterance fraught with action — and whether taking effect in the trenches, or in the camps, at Balaclava, or on board ship, at Eupa- toria, Varna, or Sclioumhi. at Scutari, or Con- stantinople, at Malta, Coi'i'u, or Gibraltar, in our