Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/183

 PRECEDING THE INVASION. 153 they spoke of wliat they called ' a Freuchmuu ; ' chap. for although (by cowing the rich, and by filling . 1_ the poor with envy) the great French Eevolutiou had thrown a lasting gloom on the national char- acter, it left this one man untouched. lie was bold, gay, reckless, and vain; but beneath the mere glitter of the surface there was a great capacity for administrative business, and a more than common willingness to take away human life. In Algerine warfare he had proved himself from the first an active, enterprising officer, and in later years a brisk commander. He was skilled in the duties of a military governor, know- ing how to hold tight under martial law a con- quered or a half-conquered province. The empire of his mind over his actions was so often inter- rupted by bodily pain and weakness, that it is hard to say whether, if he had been gifted with health, he would have been a firm, steadfast man ; but he had violent energies, and a spirit so elastic that, when for any interval the pressure of misery or of bodily pain was lifted off, he seemed as strong and as joyous as though he had never been crushed, lie chose to subordinate the lives and the rights of other men to his own advancement ; therefore he was ruthless, but not in any other sense cruel. No one, as he himself said, could be more good-natured. In the intervals between the grave deeds that he did, he danced and sung. To men in authority, no less than to women, he paid court vv^ith flattering stanzas and songs. He had extraordinary activity of body, and was