EMPEROR AND GENERAL. 33 arguments he had used in his famous letter to chap. Canrobert* and added, 'My first duty was to — _ _!_ ' restore that understanding [with the English] • which had been greatly compromised. I have ' completely restored it. I can't specify future ' operations without exposing myself to the risk ' of having my words falsified by the course of 1 events. Be trustful. Let his Majesty also deign ' to be the same.'t When the Emperor thus found himself baffled Position and lamen in all his persistent attempts to direct a campaign tations of from the Tuileries, it was natural of course that Niei. his emissary should fall from the height he had reached in the palmy days of the 'Mission.' General Niel soon began to write piteously of the treatment he was receiving from the fiery com- mander-in-chief : ' At a meeting which took place ' yesterday he, Pelissier, ordered me to be silent ' with a harshness not to be characterised, because ' I spoke of the dangers attendant upon vigorous ' actions attempted by great masses at great dis- ' tances. We were in presence of English officers. ' I saw his anger, and determined at all costs to ' avoid a scene which would have made my rela- ' tions with him impossible. This morning at a ' similar meeting General Beuret of the Artillery, ' for making a perfectly innocent observation was ' so grossly ill-treated that his eyes filled with ' tears, and he asked me whether he could remain ' with the army. . . . Here is now a man who
- See ante, vol. viii. p. 285.
t Rousset, vol. ii. p. 213. VOL. IX.
