SEGEET TERMS OF NIEL'S MISSION. 127 Ian would be openly told that the French com- chap. mander was hampered by his sovereign's restrain- '. — ing orders ; but 1 am speaking now of the inter- val from the 27th of January to the third week of April ; * and what I say is that from the be- ginning to the end of that period, all knowledge of the fact that Canrobert had been brought under the restraints imposed by the Emperor's plan was effectually concealed from Lord Kaglan. After the close of the period above indicated the Emperor and his confidential servants still went on concealing the fact of their having been pursuing a plan during several months which they had all the while kept strictly hidden from their English allies ; and it was only from disclosures which the fall of the Empire made possible that the unseemly truth came to light. Between the plan concerted with Lord Eaglan Greatness r ° ofthedif- on the 1st of January, and the one now accepted ference be- from Niel by General Canrobert, the difference of piancon- ^ . certed course was immense; for this project of invading with Lord ' r ° ° Raglan by ' the North Side ' had had no part at all in the canrobert, r and the one former arrangements ; and, so far as concerned all framed b y those weeks if not months that must pass before any investment of Sebastopol could be completed, the difference between the old and the new plan
- The 27th of January was the day of Niel's landing. It
was on the 16th of April that Canrobert (as recorded in the se- cret despatch of the 17th) read out to Lord Raglan the passage of a letter from the Emperor which will be found post, chap, viii. p. 224 ; and that, I believe, was the earliest intimation Lord Raglan received of the ' tethering ' to which the French army was subject.
