Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/69

THE FL.VNK MARCH. 39 was regarded by the French army sprang from chap. the circumstance ol" his .sutl'ering himself to he _ ' interfered with by the Emperor, or whether it arose from the intrigues of rivals, or from honest distrust and reprobation, it is certain that the ^Marshal was without due ascendancy in his own camp. Under his command, the French army was never the i)owerful instrument which the num- bers and the prowess of its components seemed able to make it ; for although, after the battle of the Alma, he suffered himself to imagine that vic- tory had won him at last the full confidence of the troops, his bodily health from that time was hardly in siieh a state as to enable him to try the strength of his authority. It was only in the early days on the Bosphorus and in Lulgaiia that the troubles St Arnaud oc- casioned were of a kind resulting from his am- bition or encroaching spirit. From the time when, during the voyage, the French officers sent in their protest against the intended descent on the Crimea, down to that when the whole Allied army was turned aside from its purpose by the bare apparition of an earthwork descried by the French on the Belbec, it was never, I think, mere ill-will or perverseness on the part of the Mar- shal, but always his want of authority, or else his failing health, which stood in the way of the enterprise. Almost the last of the jSIarshal's acts whilst on luecioseof ..... St AruuuU'3 shore gave proof of that freedom from vindictive- life, ness which was spoken of in an earlier i)age as