Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/379

KETURNING STRENGTH. 335 CHAPTER X. THE AIJ.IED AltMIES AFTEIl MID-WINTER RECOVKR- ING HEALTH AND STRENGTH. The French Government did not prove able to chap. sustain the health of its troops by giving tlieni '■ — better food, or otherwise increasing their comfort ; losses mud' and at last, after having had time — long, ample ™mpen-^" time — for amendment, stood convicted of error, ^nforce-^'^^ if not of guilty neglect, by the presence of that disease — Scurvy — which we saw bearing witness implacably against the War Department in Paris. But this default did not result in any even momentary weakening of the army besieging Sebastopol ; for the havoc inflicted by sickness and wounds was made good, much more than made good, by great reinforcements ; and in truth, since the nucleus, counting only at the first 30,000, had afterwards suffered huge losses, the remnant — the small remnant — left of men who had forded the Alma may be said to have