84 canrobert's reason. chap, sure that the painful decision of Canrohert may ' not have averted disasters, it is hard to see how !™ n " a commander, whilst haunted by forecasts so tendency. Cl j snia i ; could be keeping his mind or his will in the iron condition required for breaking into Sebastopol. Niei'scom- Marshal Niel in recording the objection did ment on the . . , objection, not either support or condemn it; but — pursu- ing his fixed idea — he took care to insist that the fact of its having stayed Canrobert, and pre- vented him from seizing the Mamelon, brought out into strong relief the inherent vice of that policy which had turned the conquerors of the Alma into hampered besiegers.* And indeed the original error of laying siege to Sebastopol without forces meet for the purpose might well seem more glaring than ever to the official nar- rator, when lie not only heard Science telling him that no belligerent weak enough to be confronted in a serious engagement by the garrison of a fortress can have any warrant in reason for at- tempting to reduce it by siege, but also saw her teaching illustrated by the predicament of Gen- eral Canrobert, who could not dare drive in an outpost for fear of provoking a battle.! canroijcrt'K The ' reason ' which had prevented Canrobert tionto from consenting on the 10th of March to seize from as- the then unfortified Mamelon proved sufficiently embryo Lu- strong to deter him from assaulting the em- notte.
- Niel, p. 169.
f Cormontaigne, Memorial pour l'attaque des places, chap. vi., cited Niel, pp. 181, 182.
