Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/306

 262 THE WINTER TKOUBLES. CHAP there awaitintr him a few of those dreaded IX 1_ ' wives of officers,' who from tune to time came to complain of hardships endured by their hus- bands, and in some cases forced him to know that, down even to wardrobe calamities, he must answer for all that went wrong. (^^) Under this pelting storm of complaints, the Duke of Newcastle now began to imagine, and Effect of presently felt very sure, that there was not only angcTupon mismanagement and want of system at Lord tile Duke of Eaglau's Headquarters, but that the chief officers ewcas e, ^^ ^^.^ Staff, and more especially his Quarter- master-General, must be gravely in fault; and in that last impression he was confirmed by a curious mistake which might have been corrected in half-an-hour by sending a note to Pall Mall. Still the Duke (although wrongly) having once received a conviction thus adverse to the rule at our Headquarter camp, might he not perhaps frankly impart it to Lord Raglan ? tiietemp; There, there, exactly there, was the plane posing him which, bccause of its smooth incline, led down blame on froui right to wroug. To impart such a convic- andthe"^" tiou to Lord Eaglan, instead of first asking for IleatUjuarter -. i i i c i. Staff; an explanation, would be, oi course, to accuse him ; and, the accuser being Secretary for War, and therefore the judge, his words would be nothing less than an authoritative condemnation of the General and his Headquarter Staff. Such a step imagined and taken against the general still entrusted with the command of our army might seem, beyond measure, outrageous ; Imt then also, unhappily, it was tempting. The