BY MEN IN AUTHORITY, 305 extraordinary letter in which he had reproved chap. the Minister of War for not giving better in- 1 structions to Canrobert,* he now wrote to Mar- shal Vaillant : ' I quite understand, Monsieur le ' Marechal, that it must have seemed to you
- extraordinary that I should have addressed
' complaints to you of the silence which you ob- ' served towards the General-in-Chief on questions ' which were ceaselessly occupying him. Now, ' you have the explanation. He was bending ' under the burthen ; and you will see that I must ' have gone through much embarrassment before ' determining to speak and act as I did.' Then, strange as it seems, General Niel proceeds to ex- plain how it was that he had not before advised the removal of Canrobert ! — ' Certainly, I do not ' hesitate, where I see my line of duty clearly ' marked out ; but in this case, I have long been ' in doubt as to that singular nature [the nature ' of Canrobert] which has so exactly the appear- ' ance of decision when a resolution is to be taken ' a long time beforehand, and which always draws ' back when the moment for execution has come. ' He is a very worthy man.'f Long afterwards, Marshal Pelissier (then Duke of Malakoff and Ambassador at the Court of St James's) tried kindly, one day, to impart to me his estimate of the commander to whom he had succeeded in the Crimea, but did this on a plan
- See ante, p. 226.
t Niel to the Minister of War, May IS, 1855. Rousset, vol ii. p. 177 et seq. VOL. VUI. U
