Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/283

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 241 and with all the appliances of the Executive chap. Government at their command, they were a pair who might well be able to make a strange dream come true. It would seem that from the moment when Fleury became a partaker of momentous secrets, the President ceased to be free. At all events, he would have found it costly to attempt to stand still. The language held by the generals who declared nenry that they would act under the authority of the in Algeria Minister of "War, and not without it, suggested the st Anuiud. contrivance which was resorted to. Fleury deter- mined to find a military man capable of com- mand, capable of secrecy, and capable of a great venture. The person chosen was to be properly sounded, and, if he seemed willing, was to be ad- mitted into the plot. He was then to be made Minister of War, in order that through him the whole of the land-forces should be at the disposal of the plotters. Fleury went to Algeria to find the instrument required ; and he so well performed his task that he hit upon a general officer who was christened, it seems, Jacques Arnaud Le Roy,* but was known at this time as Achille St Arnaud. Of some of the adventures of this per- son it will be right to speak hereafter. There was nothing in his past life, nor in his then plight, which made it at all dangerous for Fleury to ap- 27th of October, the ' Annuaire,' an authority favourable to the Elysde, lias these words : ' A la guerre, Jacques Arnaud lc Roy •do St Arnaud,' p. 352.— Note lo ith Edition, 18C3. YOE. I. Q
 * Giving in a formal way its list of the new Ministry of the