Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/224

 101 TKAXSACTIOxXS CHAP, incredible plan, and his troops -svcre then actually YTT .^ '__ in march for the new position. It might now, indeed, seem that those were right who had deemed the great alliance of the West to be impracticable. For all the purposes f.oKi Rns- of the campaign the proposed plan would have m?ned*ie-'" caused the armies of the two Western Powers to iiiis i-ian. become simply null. Lord Eaglan at once de- clared his entire disapproval of it. Tied, perhaps, to this singular plan by the counsels ^^■hich Trochii had brought him, Marshal St Arnaud, for the time, did not yield. But the English Genera], as I have already said, had a quality which made it difficult and painful for men to maintain a difference with him whilst they Avere in his presence. St Arnaud was under this stress ; and as though he shrank from the ascend- ancy of Lord Eaglan, and sought a respite from the effort of having to oppose him in oral discus- sion, he imagined the idea of bending over a table and writing down what lie had to say. This he did ; and when the writing was finished, he left it with Lord Eaglan. But the Marshal seems to have inwardly determined that Colonel Trochu, wlio had probably suggested this new })lan of campaign, should himself be made to bear the ]iain of further sustaining it; for he took his leave, saying that the Colonel should be sent to Lord Eaglan on the following day. In this curious paper, written by St Arnaud in Lord Eaglan's presence, the Marshal said the great advantage of the French and I'higlish having