314 VOYAGE OF THE ARMADA CHAP, or inattention ; yet, suffering as he did at the XX • time under bodily anguish, he was ill able to go into the discussions thus strangely forced on by the remonstrants. He found a solution. He desired Colonel Trochu to say that he would con- cur in any decision to which Lord Eaglan might come. Conference The confereuce, therefore, was adjourned to the tiie Ciuadoc. Caradoc ; and Lord Raglan and Sir Edmund Lyons were then present at it, together with all those who had met on board the Ville de Paris, except only Marshal St Arnaud. Thus, then, the ebullition of prudence which had broken out amongst the officers of the French army came under the arbitrament of the English General ; and with him, and with him only, it rested to determine the movements of the whole Allied force. The business of the conference was opened by Colonel Trochu. This officer, as we have already seen, was supposed to be better acquainted than any one else with the mind of the French Em- peror ; and his counsels, no longer bending in the direction of extreme caution, were now rather in favour of enterprise. The Colonel had possession of the document. He read it aloud ; and, as he went on with the perusal, he commented upon every point ; but he declared that he was no party to the contents of the paper, and that he did not sliare the anxieties* either of the army or the navy as to the disasters which might be expected to
- 'Preoccupations.'
