16 THK BATTLE OF INKKKMAN. CHAP, with which he was defending tlic Chersonese at [: its a(;ces.sible part, he could obtain no fresh aid from the French. His troops, he wrote, were well posted, but then there were 'not enough of them,' and ' General Canrobert,' he continued, ' assures ' me that he cannot give me any further assistance ' until the French troops arrive from Greece. ' When that will be I don't know.' * He, how- ever, spoke buoyantly of the task before him ; for after showing the nature and the variety of the perils which threatened his scanty forces, he added one of those sentences which — more by their cheerful and firm-hearted tone than by any actual statement of fact — tended strongly, when coming from him, to allay the cares of a Minister: ' Thus we have plenty to think of — it is so he wrote to the Duke of Newcastle — ' and all I can 'say is, we will do our best.' + VII. Anxiety in But although General Canrobert and Lord S? '"'^ Raglan had learned a part of the truth, the full extent of the great reinforcements obtained by Prince Mentschikoff remained still unknown in the Allied armies, and it was not so much on their camps but rather upon their distant homes, where every mail from the Levant was awaited with longing and dread, that the coming attack threw its shadow. Designs contrived for the
- Private letter to Duke of Newcastle, 3cl November 1854.
+ Letter of 3d November 1854.
