278 RECALL OF THE KERTCH EXPEDITION. CHAP. ' sent to the embarkation, he might have been X ... ' ' forgiven, but to recall an expedition after it ' lias sailed, and to expose your game to the ' enemy, shows him to be utterly incapable of ' high command or of weighing the results of ' so false a move as he has made. Well may ' the army and fleet be disgusted. I only won- ' der Bruat obeyed so desponding an order.* I ' never will believe that the Emperor's instruc-
- tions were such as to leave Canrobert no dis-
' cretion.' t The Emperor soon spoke for himself, and the tenor of what he alleged we shall presently learn ; but first, we must hear General Canrobert, and then try to do him more justice than was possible in that angry time. canroberfs In his telegram to the Emperor dated the 4th the'recau. of May, General Canrobert, after stating that the Kertch expedition had started on the previ- ous evening, went on to say this : — ' Your despatch of yesterday 3d May, 1 P.M. ' has arrived. It compels me without losing a ' day to send all the means of transport of the ' French fleet to Constantinople. I am making ' the expedition return contrary to the advice of ' Lord Raglan, and am proceeding to conform ' myself to your orders.' It seems just to acknowledge that, if Canrobert
- Disobedience on the part of Admiral Bruat would have
been mutiny, for he was under General Canroberfs orders. f To Lord Raglan, Private, 7th May 1855. In several sub- sequent despatches Lord Panmure repeated strong expressions of his anger and disgust.
