34 NIEL. CHAP, 'is Grointr to become a raging madman* . . . TTT ' ' The English have drawn him, Pelissier, to them, ' and lie has adopted their system of war — a sys- ' tern, in my opinion, the most imprudent of all, ' — which consists in pushing straight forward ' from the old positions.' After expressing the grief inflicted upon him by the change of plan, and showing that Pelis- sier was angry with him for writing letters to the Emperor, General Niel continued : — ■ ' The army in the Crimea is excellent, and asks 1 but to fight. What is wanting to the army is a ' chief to lead it. God grant that the army may ' have one ! ' f Nici-s en- Under the vigorous sway of Pelissier, Niel re- power! tained not so much as a shred of the baneful power he had wielded in General Canrobert's time. Niel had aided his sovereign in doing grievous harm to the French and their allies by paralysing their action against Sebastopol ; but it must not be imagined that he was only a servile man striv- ing for mere obedience' sake to execute the will of his sovereign. On the contrary, his ceaseless insistence on the policy of completely investing Sebastopol by means of field operations was the natural and direct result of his own strongly rooted opinion. To thoughtful men rendered anxious (as was, we know, Marshal Vaillant) by the antagonism
- 'Fou furieus.' t Housset, vol. ii. pp. 209, 210.
