RECALL OF THE KERTCH EXPEDITION. 279 really owed strict obedience to the Emperor's chap. nighty commands, he could not have well helped ' recalling his troops from that Kertch Expedition, which, far from aiding at all towards the instant concentration of forces enjoined by his sovereign, was drawing off the French means of transport, and several thousands of men to serve for a while at some distance from the three allied camps. General Canrobert, it is true, went astray, but The justice his error was one of old growth. It lay — not, as believed Lord Panmure, in any misconstruc- tion of orders, but — in his then confirmed habit of undue subserviency to the will of a master who of course could have no just pretensions to be wielding his army from Paris.* Plainly not understanding at all that a general with allies at his side who would worthily command a great army in an enemy's country must perforce be a statesman as well as a soldier, he seems to have fancied that his duty of simple obedience was analogous to that of the Private expectant of the ' halt ! ' or ' quick march ! ' X. It seemed that the wrath of our people was Letter from endangering all prospect of concert between the Km^ror Ch Allies ; and in explanation of the course he had
- The Emperor himself once declared (though of course in-
consistently with much of what he had done) that he had no such pretension. ' Je ne pretends pas commander l'arnie'e d'ici.' To Pelissier, 23d May 1855, quoted Rousset, vol. ii. p. 192.
