Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/218

 188 TRANSACTIONS CHAP, then said that he thouglit a good deal of incoii- ^"" venieuce might result from the adoption of the Marshal's plan ; that Omar Pasha was the ablest of the Turkish generals ; that his services had been recognised by the grant of the rank of General- issimo and the title of Highness ; and that to deprive him of the superior command, and to dismember his army, at a moment when it was in presence of the enemy, would not only lower him in the estimation of those who looked up to him with confidence, but would probably in- duce him to throw up his charge in disgust, and declare that he would not suffer himself to be degraded. But both Lord Eaglan and the English Am- bassador were gifted with the power which is one of the most keen and graceful of all the ac- complishments of the diplomatist — the power of affecting the hearer with an apprehension of what remains unsaid. It is a power which exerts great sway over human actions ; for men are more cogently governed by what they are forced to imagine than by what they are allowed to know, ' them.' He gave way. He immediately declared that, far from wishing to dimiiiisli the consequence of Omar Pasha, he was anxious to add to it, to u])hold him to the utmost, and to increase his importance ; and he added that he saw the pro- priety of deciding nothing until after a conference with Omar Pasha. By the time that St Arnaud
 * The Marshal,' Lord Eaglan wrote, ' saw that our
 * opinions were stronger than our expression of