Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/287

CHAP. IX.

last method, for once, had no place, because the suffering endured by our troops was an occasion so painful, that the idea of applying ridicule to the descriptions it generated would have been beyond measure revolting. So, that resource being inapplicable, England had to pursue the first method, and words piled high upon words rose accumulating in mountainous bulk till the day of the winnowing came. What the grain of truth was that remained we long ago saw; but it took eighteen months of enquiry to attain the result; and our country meanwhile had to suffer the fate of being lowered in character by the journal that spoke in her name.

The real merits of our army it contrast with the cited language. The cry broke out at a time when, however imperilled and weakened, our whole army, from the general downwards, might be thought to have earned some gratitude from our people at home by giving them a right to their pride. If the Alma, if Inkerman were already too many weeks old to be cared for by swift-flitting journalists, the conflict in front of Sebastopol was one even then going on, one maintained day and night without ceasing, one not indeed shaped and condensed into what men regard as a 'battle,' yet involving more surely than battles commonly do the fate of the wrestling armies.^[1] In that deadly strife, our army had long been persisting ; and though weak, though hugely outnumbered, had always held its ground. I,