Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/268

238 pelissieb ix ins time or adversity. CHAPTER IX. PELISSIER AFTER HIS DISCOMFITURK. chap. At the close of the assaults he had hazarded on IX- the 18th of June, Pelissier must needs have en- Thedia- dured a more than common load of distress. He tressing fn which na d chosen to follow a course so flighty and way- rtood?" ward that, in order to be ever condoned, his con- duct seemed to require nothing less than the shield of a victory ; yet after exacting from his army deplorable sacrifices, he had only encoun- tered discomfiture. He had fiercely resisted his Emperor, had set at naught all the counsels (in- cluding those of Lord Kaglan) which moved him to assail the Flagstaff Bastion then ripe for attack, had driven his foremost general from all command on the Heights for the crime of discerning with clearness what he himself failed to see ; he had — why none can tell — broken loose from the en- gagement deliberately made with Lord Raglan on the morning of the 17th, and had ended by ruth- lessly ordering that, next day, at dawn, three divisions of infantry should move forward across broad spaces of ground under the ruinous fire of