Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/238

206 THE RISE OF PELISSIKK. CHAP. VII. conflicts no longer thought cardinal might not after all, be unwise^ 1 ) This, how- ever, over- come. Pelissier; not brook- ing the en- croach- ments against his own front But whatever its cause, the French commander's reluctance to make a vigorous stand against Todleben's successive aggressions was destined, this time, to be vanquished, or perhaps one may say overruled. The truth is that in this the ' old siege ' — the siege against the Town front — a man stronger than Canrobert, and stronger than Canrobert's Emperor, was beginning to make himself felt. Pelissier, it is true, at this time commanded only a corps ; but his, as it chanced, were the troops affronted, challenged, defied, by this last growth of new Eussian works thrown out in advance of Sebastopol ; and, although of course lawfully he was even on this his own ground a subordinate owning obedience to the acknowledged Commander-in-Chief, he still was by nature so constituted as to be in hot rage at the notion of quietly, tamely enduring the enemy's audacious encroachments. And rage with him was a power. Having great strength of will, whilst able at pleasure to arm himself — almost dramatically — with an overpowering vehemence of manner and speech, and besides, exerting his pressure on one who well knew him to be indicated by a Dormant Commission for the exercise (under certain con- tingencies) of even the highest command, he — after some effort apparently — got his way over Canrobert, and was either empowered or suffered