Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/152

108 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP. V. The roaa between I'ort and c«mp be- coming almost im- passable. The conditions were such, that to favour one army at the expense of the other was indeed to wrong one of them, but also to endanger both. In the presence of a powerful, outnumbering enemy, and cooped down with their backs to the sea, the two Allied armies were each of them of absolute necessity to one another, having, neither of them, any pretensions to be able to remain alive singly. French and English alike, they had adventured on board the same ship ; and it would have been an almost mad kind of favour- itism to go and protest that because the planks stoved in were those on her starboard quarters, therefore none of the port-side men must help to save the vessel from sinking. Still, as bearing against my conclusion, and in favour of the policy of endurance, though coupled with suffering and the loss of precious lives, it should be remembered that, for the delicate task of determining what the French general could be prudently urged to do. Lord Eaglan was more competent than any other then living man ; that (apart from what I have treated as a plan of necessity) the mere justice of the English demand would have formed no excuse for pushing it to dangerous lengths ; and finally, that any catas- trophe to which the Allies might be doomed would be miserably explained by ascribing it to dissensions between the two generals. The road growing worse and worse daily under the action of rain, was before long in such a condition as to be impassable for waggons, unless they were forced through the clay by