CHAP. VI.
their common country, General Möller and Admiral Nachimoff requested Admiral Korniloff 'to undertake the general arrangements for the defence of the town.'
Korniloff by common accord invested with the supreme command. And Korniloff did not shrink from accepting the command thus proffered him by the judgment of his comrades. He observed, it is true, that the land forces would not be under an obligation to obey his orders; but General Möller met this objection by appointing Korniloff the Chief of the Staff of the Sebastopol garrison, and by publishing an instruction which enjoined obedience to all the orders which Korniloff might give the land forces.
The Russians take a just pride in tracing the glory of their defence of Sebastopol to the political courage and the generous self-denial which thus secured unity of command in the gravest hour of danger.
V.
Korniloff's use and extension of his power: No sooner was Korniloff thus invested with command than he proceeded to exert, and even to stretch, his power, without at all shrinking from the duty of having to overrule one of those very chiefs who had just placed him over their heads. When Nachimoff joined in ceding to Korniloff the Nachimoff prevented from sinking his ships. whole charge of defending the town, he did not intend to abdicate his authority as an admiral commanding one of the two squadrons into which the fleet was divided; so, having already taken the measures we spoke of for the eventual destruction of his squadron, and being still in the de-
