274 RECALL OF THE KERTCH EXPEDITION. CHAP. Thus inquiry, if conducted with care, goes far X " towards making it clear that Lord Raglan in giving the warrant was, after all, rightly in- spired* Lord Raglan must have thought with great care of the state of effervescence into which our allies might be thrown, if the enterprise should be pushed to an issue in spite of Gen- eral Canrobert's secession, and must seemingly have convinced himself that the effect of this resolute measure on the minds of the French would prove in the end to be good. IX. Return of With the forces engaged in this Kertch Expedi- tion? xpet ' tion all seemed as yet to be prospering. The conditions were such that a highly effective re- connaissance could be made from the sea. Cap- tain Spratt looking out from the Spitfire, and Captain Le Bris from the Fulton, were able to reach a conclusion — now known to have been soundly based — that the success of the enter- prise was likely to prove sure and prompt; but, when so nearly approaching the field of the con- templated operations as to be seen and duly re- ported from the Light-tower marking Cape Takli, the flotilla with all its keen hopes was overtaken
- The ' enlightment ' is more than commonly vivid, being not
only furnished by Todleben's admirable expositions, but also by the actual experience deriving from the second Kertch Ex- pedition.
