TO SIR GKORGE CATHCART. 393 of a secret that would come like a thunderbolt char ' upon him if anything should happen to me. ' Now, all is right, and I need no longer say to ' myself, " False face must hide what the false " heart doth know." ' * If it be true, as I have inferred, that the grant T he effect of the secret Commission to Cathcart had an ill Dormant i*»i 1-.L ji?T j.i_ u Commission effect upon his temper and feelings, there would notneces- plainly be error in imagining that the withdrawal movedb'yiu of it was calculated to restore his equanimity. His letter shows, it is true, that he fervently welcomed the change ; but there remained the fact that the Queen's Government had at one time singled him out as the officer best fitted to succeed Lord Eaglan in the command of our army ; and it was natural, perhaps, that the re- collection of this circumstance should tend to lessen his deference for others — including even Lord Eaglan — and to give him what proved to be an undue confidence in his own judgment. To account for his conduct on the day of Bala- clava, and for what by-and-by we shall see him doing at Inker man, there will be need of all the light that can fairly be shed on his motives.
- Private letter, Lord Raglan to Duke of Newcastle, October
27, 1854.
