25G LORD RAGLAN. chap. ' will press Pelissier to invest [Sebastopol], and ' ' may soon issue such stringent orders as shall ' place Pelissier in the dilemma of having to ' choose between his master's orders and his own ' conviction. We shall do all we can to prevent ' this.' * ' The result of this failure on the part of the ' French will have very bad effects on the Eni- ' peror, and lead him, I fear, to issue some fetter- ' ing orders to Pelissier which may annoy him and ' embarrass the future plans of both of you. He ' is singularly low t at present ; and, as he has ' a tendency to depression of spirits you can make ' allowance for his style of communication when ' in that condition.'! More and more, indeed every day from almost the first, Lord Panmure felt the safety, the com- fort, the happiness of moving in the light of that guidance that reached him with every mail, with every electric message from the English Head- quarters — guidance not, it is true, often given in the actual, set form of advice, but rather con- veyed or instilled by the general tenor of the despatches and letters. To be receiving communi- cations of this priceless sort twice in every week,
- Lord Panmure to Lord liaglan, 18th June 1855. The date
is a sermon against premature exultation. A defect in the work- ing of the electric telegraph made it possible for Lord Panmure, when he wrote, to be congratulating instead of condoling. t Underscored in the original. + Lord Panmure to Lord Raglan, 23d June 1855,
