Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/233

CHAP VII.

The expediency of veiling differences between the French and the English commanders. The duty of thus submitting for consideration the expediency of an assault, was one which had to be performed with exceeding care, and, if possible, in such a way as to guard against the evil that must result from an overt difference between the French and the English Commanders. Supposing — and this is what happened —that the alternative of entering upon siege-work should be the one adopted, it would obviously be perilous to the good understanding of the two allied armies, if the English soldiers, when enduring the toils and the hardships of protracted siege duties, should be able to say: 'Our Commander has brought this upon us by letting the foreigners have their way. He himself was for assaulting the place; and because the Frenchmen would not agree, here we are on the clay and the snow.'

Lord Raglan's way of submitting the question of assaulting. But, if this was a danger attending the crisis. no one living could be more competent to guard against it than Lord Piaglan. Even in eliciting Burgoyne's opinion, he did not, it seems, disclose his own;^[1] and although, as we have seen, he twice over elicited the opinion of Canrobert upon