Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/466

43G THH CANNONADE OF CHAP, to be smiled on by fortune had been part of the •^^"' army to which they belonged. In snch a case, the confidence and the warlike impulse engendered by disabling the Eedan would have been carried by swift contagion to the men on the crest of Mount Eodolph ; and the discouragement there occasioned by the explosion of the magazine would perhaps have been followed by a bold and determined resolve. As it was, the duality of the besieging force proved so constant in its noxious effects that, whilst both the armies were liampered by misluck occurring to one of them, there was no happy converse to set against that ill result ; for the hopefulness of the army which had chanced to succeed in its task did not prove to be a blessing that could be shared by that one which happened to fail. So, upon the whole it must be said that, al- though there was no disagreement between Gene- ral Canrobert and Lord Raglan, the experience of the 17th of October gave little warrant to the fancy of those who had imagined that the concord of England and France would enable them to act in the field with the power of two mighty nations and the decisiveness of one. In that sense, the Alliance scarce seemed to join the two armies : it coupled, but did not unite them. The course To a man of an anxious temperament there cmirobcrt. is sorc temptation in the ever - ready, the ever- alluring, yet often pernicious, expedient of re- sorting to delay. General Canrobert apparently judged that he must wait until his troops, with