Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/371

 THE DEMKANOUK OF ENGLAND. 327 ing his wit, nay, trying to keep down his clever- chap. ness in order to practise ' solemnity,' as enjoined ^^' by the Minister ; the five officers, one after another, dissecting the ' animadversions ' by which they deemed themselves wronged, Colonel Tulloch labouring bravely to defend or excuse his reports, the seven soldier-judges hearing all with manifest care, yet maintaining with rare self-restraint an almost absolute silence. The five assailed officers were, each of them, thoroughly masters of the subjects on which they stood challenged ; so that plainly the kind of resource on which they best could rely in order to show themselves right was — not any mere art of fence, such as that used in common dis- putes, but rather — simple, plain exposition : and of one of them, indeed, it was said that he only, as it were, seemed to open a shutter in some long-darkened room, thus allowing rather tiian forcing the light of truth to break in. With the vehement support of the ' Times/ and the public applauding his efforts. Colonel Tulloch was for the moment a hero, conspicuous in the country at large. But within the great hall at Chelsea, this very eminence proved seem- ingly painful to him ; for — without the concur- rence of even his own colleague — he had taken upon himself to maintain the ' animadversions, thus becoming substantially a public accuser ; and whilst placed all alone at a table set apart fur his use, he had to sit in full uniform, encoun Lering, hour by hour, refutation of that cogent sort that comes with the weight of authority —