Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/311

FOR THE INVASION. 281 Briiat, could have couscientiously argued that the chap. scheme was wise or even moderately prudent. L How was it to be contrived that a council of war, disapproving the enterprise, should be prevented from strangling it ? As almost always happened in conferences Loni uag- ■> ri. ],,j, J. way ol where Lord Raglan had the ascendant, the grand eluding ob- question was quietly passed over, as though it were either decided or conceded for the purpose of the discussion, and it was made to seem that the duty which renuiinud to the council was that of determining the time and the means. The French had studied the means of disembarking in the face of a powerful enemy. Sir Ealph Aber- cromby's descent upon the coast of Egypt in the face of the French army was an enterprise too brilliant and too daring to allow of its being held a safe example, for he had simply landed his in- fantry upon the beach in boats, without attempt- ing, in the first instance, to bring artillery into action. It seems that hardly any stress of cir- cumstances will induce a French general to bring his infantry into action upon open ground with- out providing for it the support of artillery. Naturally, therefore, the French authorities at Varna were impressed with the necessity of be- ing able to land their field-guns in such a way as to admit of their being brought into action simultaneously with the landing of their battal- ions ; and, having anticipated some time before that a disembarkation in the face of an enemy might be one of the operations of the war, they