250 THE EMPEROR'S PLAN. chap. ' of which I am sure T should have succeeded.* IX 'Consider it coolly with Lord Raglan; and, al- ' though I do not pretend to be always right, I ' cannot abstain from reminding you that, if Mar- 1 shal St Arnaud had followed exactly the plan ' which I traced out for him, we should now ' have Sebastopol in our power, and the army ' would not have been exposed to so much suf-
- fering.'t
Before this imperial letter had passed the sixth day of a journey performed by old - fashioned means, the injunctions it carried were destined to be outstripped, outdone, overpowered by words that flying more swiftly were also a great deal more wild. J V. 3d of May. By despatches brought out with the mails, and eralsinthe already in their hand s before noon on the 3d of qiain?ed C ' May, the French and the English Commanders peiiaipian. were made acquainted with the general purport of the arrangements concluded at Buckingham Palace, and with the tenor of the Emperor's pro- jected campaign, whilst Lord Raglan was also ap- prised of the opinion which our Government had formed of its merits, and of the prospect of super- seding it by a more feasible scheme. He soon
- Made on the 27th of April, this the first mention of the
Emperor's change of purpose was despatched by mail, but out- stripped by the telegram to the .same effect which we shall see reaching Canrobert in the night of the 3d of May. t The Emperor to General Canrobert, 27th April 1855. t See post, pp. 264-268.
