226 TROUBLED COUNSELS. chap, lished at the French Headquarters made bold VIIL to reprove the Minister of War for not having lectured the unfortunate Canrobert, and thus kept him in more close obedience to the com- mands of the ' Mission.' ' I must regret, M. le ' Marshal, that you did not speak to the Com- ' mander-in-Chief about the conduct of the siege. ' From the accounts furnished to you, you know ' pretty well what Sebastopol is, and besides, ' being close to the Emperor, you know many ' things that are not known here. I am con- • vinced that if you had written in the sense in ' which I spoke, a great deal of faltering would ' have been avoided.'* It was on the 16th of April that Lord Eaglan received his first knowledge of what 1 have called the ' miserable instruction ' ; t and thenceforth he of course understood that the French Commander associated with him in the enterprise against Sebastopol was not at the time a fr,ee agent ; but one must not be led to infer that an end no termina- was thus put to the secrecy which had shrouded secre° y * the ' Mission ' of Niel. Nothing short of the fall shrouded of the 'Empire' with other favouring circum- ■sion/ m ' stances sufficed to lay bare the truth, and show how the ' Mission ' of Niel had been secretly taking effect from the time of his arrival in January to the mid-April period now reached. i6th April. On the 16th of April (after a preliminary dis- made be-" cussion between the chief Engineer and Artillery
- Rousset, vol. ii. pp. 145, 146.
-f- See ante, p. 224, and footnote.
