our advice I will ask for it."

While this conversation was in progress, the English officers present
were whispering amongst themselves with undisguised satisfaction at
finding that the new commander-in-chief of the French, unlike his
predecessor, was well able to keep his subordinates in order; and,
all useless discussion having been cut short, the plan of attack was
soon arranged.

"Well," said Lord Raglan, "it is all clear. We shall begin by a heavy
cannonade."

"To last four-and-twenty-hours," said Pelissier, "and then the
assault."

"At what hour?" asked Lord Raglan.

"Daylight, of course!" cried two or three French generals in a breath.

"One moment," interposed General Airey. "Day-break is the time of all
others that the enemy would expect an attack; they would therefore be
best prepared for it then."

A sharp argument followed, and lasted several minutes, each side
clinging tenaciously to its own opinion.

"Do not waste your energies, gentlemen," said Marshal Pelissier, again
interfering decidedly. "Lord Raglan and I have settled that matter for
ourselves. The attack will take place at five o'clock in the
afternoon. That will allow time for us to get established in the
enemy's works in the night after we have carried them."

"Of course, gentlemen," said Lord Raglan, in breaking up the council,
"you will all understand the importance of secrecy. Not a word of what
has passed here must be repeated outside. It would be fatal to success
if the enemy got any inkling of our intentions."

"It's quite extraordinary," said General Airey to McKay and a few
more, as they passed out from the council-chamber, "how the enemy gets
his information."

"Those newspaper correspondents, I suspect, are responsible," said
another general. "They let out everything, and the news, directly it
is printed, is telegraphed to Russia."

"That does not entirely explain it. They must be always several weeks
behind. I am referring more particularly to what happens at the
moment. Everything appears to be immediately known."

"Why, only the other day a Russian spy walked coolly through our
second parallel," said a French officer, "and counted the number of
the guns. He passed himself off as an English traveller."

"Great impudence, but great pluck. I wish we had men who would do the
same. That's what I complain of. We want a better organised secret
service, and men like Wellington's famous Captain Grant in the
Peninsular War,