Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/314

 284 ORDERS AND PREPARATIONS CHAP, nient. Lon<^ am thercfore, he had been whetted fortius strife; and now that the 'Eastern Ques- ' tion ' was to be brought to the issue of a war in which he had part, ho was inflamed with a pas- sionate zeah Eesuming at once the uniform and the bearing of his old profession, he cast aside, if ever he had it, all semblance of diplomatic reserve and composure, and threw himself, with all his seaman's heart, into the business of the war. Lord Raglan drew Sir Edmund Lyons into liis intimate counsels. I know not whether this con- cord of theirs was ever put into words ; but I imagine that, at the least, I can infer from their actions, and from the tenor of their intercourse, a silent understanding between them — an under- standing that no lukewarmness of others, no shortcomings, no evasions, no tardy prudence, no overgrown respect for difficulty or peril, should hinder the landing of the Queen's troops on the coast of the Crimea. From the time that Lord Kaglan thus joined Lyons to the undertaking he gave it a great moincntum. To those, within the grasp of the Itcar-Adiniral's energy it seemed that thenceforth, and until the troops should be landed on the enemy's shore, there could be no rest for man, no rest for engines. The Agamemnon was never still. In the ])ainful, consuming passion with which Lyons l(Mled, and even, as some im- agined, in the anxious, craving expression of his features, there was something which reminded men of a greater name. With the cordial approval of Lyons, Tathair