tremendous bombardment. The dissatisfaction thereby excited in both armies was now aggravated by another event bearing the same character. On the 23d April the Allied generals once more agreed on delivering an assault, which was to take place on the 28th, after two days' preparative cannonade. All was being got ready when, on the 25th, the French Admiral Bruat received instructions from the Minister of Marine to assemble all available steamers at Constantinople for the embarkation of the Army of Reserve for the Crimea. With the prospect of immediately receiving this large reinforcement, it seemed to Canrobert that a hazardous attempt to assault in the interval would be to incur an unwarrantable risk. Lord Raglan reluctantly concurred ; but, as some compensation, another enterprise was now agreed on. It had long been recognised that the route on which the Russians in the Crimea principally relied for supplies was that conducting to the eastern shore of the Sea of Azof; when landed at Kertch, they were conveyed by a good and direct road to Simpheropol. An expedition against Kertch had, therefore, long been contemplated by the Allied generals, and it was now to be executed forthwith. On the 3d May the troops, French and English, were embarked, and went to sea. But here a new element entered into the conduct of the war. On the 25th April the Crimea was placed in telegraphic communication with London and Paris. In the night after the expedition sailed, Canrobert received a telegram, sent the day before by the Emperor, saying that the moment was come for the expedition against the
The Expedition recalled. 227
Russian field army, and that as soon as the reserve from Constantinople should reach him he was not to lose a day in beginning the enterprise. Therefore, to the extreme dissatisfaction of Lord Raglan, Canrobert, by a fast steamer, recalled the French part of the Kertch expedition, the whole of which was consequently again put on shore in the Crimea on the 6th. It was also by telegraph that General Niel, hitherto without a place in Canrobert's army, was appointed its chief engineer, in place of General Bizot, killed in the late cannonade.
These events had pressed hardly on Canrobert. He felt that the English must regard him as weak and vacillating and unreliable. Much of this apparent defect of character may have been due to the cold shadow of General Niel. But there is no doubt that inherent indecision was generally imputed to him, among others, by General Niel himself, who wrote to the Minister of War that Canrobert's nature had exactly the appearance of decision when a resolution had to be taken a long time beforehand, but always drew back when the moment for execution came. " Who," writes the Prince Consort to a friend, " who will rekindle the spirit of the French Army which has been dashed by Canrobert's irresolution and want of firmness?" The sense of a natural defect, terribly aggravated by circumstances, and of his consequent unfitness to bear the heavy burthens which the command and the alliance laid on him, grievously tormented the French general ; and his troubles were further increased when, in the middle of May, the Emperor's plan, in full detail, was brought
228 Conference of Commanders.