Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/317

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 275 monly called a ' Government ; ' but this time the chap. law was on the side of the insurgents, and the XIV " knot of men who had got the control of the offices of the State were not so circumstanced in point of repute as to be able to make up for the want of legal authority by the weight of their personal character. Therefore it was natural for Magnan, notwithstanding his cherished order from the Minister of War, to think a good deal of what might happen to him, if perchance, at the very moment when he was taking upon his hands the blood of the Parisians, the plot of which he was the instrument should after all break down for want of support from men known and honoured as statesmen. But at length perhaps it was effectually ex- Magnan at ,.,__ .. length re- pJamed to Magnan that he must stand or fall solves to with those to whom he was now committed, and that, although he thought to keep himself under the shelter of the ' order of the Minister of War,' the testimony of any one out of the twenty Generals who met him on the 27th of November would suffice to bring him into nearly the same plight as any of the avowed plotters. A judicious application of this kind of torture would make it unnecessary for Colonel Fleury to show even the hilt of his pistol. At all events, Magnan now at last consented to act against the insurrection. He had thrown away the whole of the morning and the better part of the afternoon, and this od. a short December day ; but at two o'clock the troops were ordered to advance, and by three all