342 THE HALT ON TlIK CHAP, western to the southern coast. Of the counsels ' which ended in a resolve to adopt this new plan of campaign I shall have to speak by-and-by, and it is only in the process of accounting for the halt on the Alma that I stay to glance at them here.* Upon the question thus raised there was no need for the Allies to come to their final and absolute decision until they should be in the neighbourhood of the Belbec ; but even whilst still on the Alma, they apparently determined tliat nothing but a return to the old plan of attacking the North Forts should prevent them from adopting Lord riaghm's conditional pro- posal: and this determination carried them so far towards an actual adoption of the measure, that already their merely inchoate approval began to govern their movements. The way in which these changes of plan de- tained the Allies on the Alma will now be per- ceived. So i'ar as concerns the earlier period of the halt, it resulted of necessity from Marshal St Arnaud's refusal to go on and attack the North Forts ; for between the time of the refusal and the conditional acceptance of Lord Eaglan's al- ternative proposal, the Allies wei'e without any purpose sufhcing to guide tlu'ir steps; and when at length, by ])ersisting in his refusal, the INLrrshal eonstrnined the Allies to entertain a measure in- volving the abandonment of the western coast, he drove them to an alternative which still further lengthened the halt.
- Soo 2^ost, cliai). V. See also the Llap.
