J -J -J SKCKKT TKii.MS OK KIEL S MISSION. CHAP. V. uid ap- |iroved by Canrobert. Niel's task. The army of Canrobert kept secret- ly under restraint. The Empe- ror's plan put in course of execution. approval of Canrobert;* whilst also I gather thai from the day (the 23d of February t) when Niel returned to the French Headquarters after his very brief visit to Constantinople, he con- stantly made it his task to keep the siege in conformity with that restrained system of action which his written precepts enjoined.f Thus the first of the two objects indicated by General Niel's summary — that of putting re- straint on Canrobert's army — was fully secured ; and measures were promptly taken for achieving the other great object — the investment of Sebas- topol on its North Side. A part of the plan which — because not imparted to Canrobert — may be called its ' Separate Article ' had laid it down from the first that the task of thus com- pleting the investment should be undertaken by the Emperor in person with the aid of fresh troops in large numbers sent out from France or Algeria ; and, so early as the 3d of February, Marshal Vaillant, the Minister of War, was al- ready giving his orders for assembling on ground near Constantinople the new forces meant to take part in Louis Napoleon's enterprise^ Rousset says : ' L'Fmpereur avait en principe adopte" les iddes ' de son aide de camp.' Vol. ii. p. 35.
- Line 58 etseq. in Letter, Niel to French Emperor, Feb. 14,
1855. It is immediately after his summing up of the plan that Niel adds : ' Le Ge'ne'ral Canrobert le juge ainsi.' t Lord Raglan to Lord Panraure, 24th February 1855. X See the quotations from letters of Niel given by Rousset, vol. ii. p. 34 et seq., and especially the one of the 17th of Feb- ruary 1855. § From 40,000 to 60,000 men.— Vaillant to General Larchey
