opes
that General Simpson may still rally. He must be in a great state of
helplessness at this moment, knowing that he wants, as everybody out
there, the advantages which Lord Raglan's name, experience, position,
rank, prestige, etc., etc., gave him, having his Military Secretary
ill on board, the head of the Intelligence Department dead, and no
means left him whereby to gather information or to keep up secret
correspondence with the Tartars--Colonel Vico[67] dead, who, as Prince
Edward told the Queen, had become a _most important_ element in the
good understanding with the French Army and its new Commander, and
not possessing military rank enough to make the Sardinian General[68]
consider him as his Chief. If all these difficulties are added to
those inherent to the task imposed upon him, one cannot be surprised
at his low tone of hopefulness. As most of these will, however, meet
every Commander whom we now can appoint, the Queen trusts that means
will be devised to assist him as much as possible in relieving him
from too much writing, and in the diplomatic correspondence he has to
carry on. The Queen repeats her opinion that a _Chef de Chancellerie
Diplomatique_, such as is customary in the Russian Army, ought to be
placed at his command, and she wishes Lord Panmure to show this letter
to Lords Palmerston and Clarendon, and to consult with them on the
subject. Neither the Chief of the Staff nor the Military Secretary
can supply that want, and the General himself must feel unequal to it
without any experience on the subject, and so will his successor.

Prince Edward told the Queen _in strict confidence_ that General
Simpson's position in Lord Raglan's Headquarters had been anything
but pleasant, that the Staff had been barely civil to him; he was
generally treated as an interloper, so that the Sardinian and French
Officers attached to our Headquarters observed upon it as a strange
thing which would not be tolerated in their Armies, and that General
Simpson showed himself grateful to them for the civility which they
showed to a General Officer of rank _aux cheveux blancs_. These little
details, considered together with the General's extreme modesty,
enable one to conceive what his present feelings must be.[69]

[Footnote 67: Colonel Vico, the French Commissioner attached
to Lord Raglan's staff, had died on the 10th.]

[Footnote 68: General La Marmora.]

[Footnote 69: The Russian resources for the def