Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/325

THE DEATH OF LORD RAGLAN. 295 under the shock occasioned by the loss of their chap. XIII. chief, though also perhaps from a sense that, L without him, they could not well even try to pursue any further the question — admittedly anxious and difficult — which he had ventured to raise. For our people this break wrought by death Loss of in the wholesome, accustomed relations between Angio- their chief and Pelissier was a grave and lasting council, misfortune. The prospect awaiting our army from the , i i i> i • death of depended, or course, on its having a rightly Lord Rag- allotted share of the great warlike business in hand; and the exigencies of the Alliance made it plain that every such needed apportionment of combatant tasks must be concerted with the French chief. Yet he who alone among men had proved able in council to deal with the fiery Pelissier lay now in the chamber of death ; and none coming after him knew how in treaty — in critical, perilous treaty — with the commander of 100,000 men to secure for our scantier numbers in the struggles to come a good, well -assigned fighting berth. In this way alone out of many, the death of the English commander brought down all at once on our army, and therefore of course on our country, a grave and abrupt loss of power. Our country indeed, every day, was growing in strength — in material strength of the kind that is needed for war ; but material strength, after all, is only one part of greatness. Amongst those who remember the period not one, I imagine, will say