Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/31

FROM THE OPENING OF TEISSIER'S COMMAND TO THE DEATH OE LORD RAGLAN. CHAPTER I. THE NEW FRENCH COMMANDER AND THE PROSPECTS OP VIGOROUS ACTION WHICH HIS LEADERSHIP SEEMED TO BE OPENING. — THE STRENGTH OF THE BELLIGER- ENTS. — THE PROBLEM AWAITING SOLUTION. — THE RESOLVES OF P^LISSIER. — THE IMPENDING STRIFE BETWEEN HIM AND THE EMPEROR. On the 19th of May, the command of the now chap. great French army was assumed in due form by ' Pelissier. This short, thick-set, resolute Norman P61issier - had passed his sixtieth year; but the grey, the fast whitening hair that capped his powerful head, and marked the inroads of Time, wore a strange, wore an alien look, as though utterly out of true fellowship with the keen, liery, vehe- ment eyes, with the still dark and heavy mous- VOL. IX. A