Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/106

76 COUNCIL OF WAR. CHAP, off-sliftre .'^({uadron were not only ready for such ^^' an encounter as the very one for which their services were specially reserved, but were even in port 'cleared for action.' And again, it was wild to build a hope of suiprising the whole Allied fleet upon the furtive success with which a small single Ihissian steamer had now and then cheated the ^vak•llfulness of the Anglo-French cruisers. The rejection of Korniloff's measure M'as fol- lowed by the open proposal of that other and very different plan of action which was already engaging the thoughts of the council. It was Captain Captain Zorin who submitted this counter-pro- counter- posal to the assembled admii'als and captains ; iiiopobui. ^^^j .^ _^^^.j^ ^^ observed that, although submitted in this way as the advice of one of the captains, the plan was the one which Prince Mentschikoff, on the evening before, had ordered Korniloff to execute. That which Captain Zorin proposed was this : to sink some of the oldest of the ships across the mouth of the roadstead, and employ the crews of the sunken ships, as well as those of the rest of the fleet, in reinforcing the garrison, the grief When this proposal was made, many, knowing His'Leaid.' apparently that it had the sanction of the Com- niander-in-Chief, and would therefore be adopted, began to shed tears. And now there was loud speaking, lie who records what passed does not undertake to give the words, or even the tenor of what was then said, but in his own language — he was himself an officer of the Black Sea fleet — he