On May 14 Lord Raglan, Canrobert, and Omar Pasha had a long and final consultation as to the proposal of the Emperor Napoleon, which was in effect to separate the allied forces into three armies acting independently--one to blockade Sebastopol, the second to storm the Mackenzie Heights, and the third to march to the centre of the Crimea. The scheme was rejected on the broad ground that it would render each separate force liable to attack and defeat in detail.[28] This decision brought affairs to a crisis, and on May 16 General Canrobert telegraphed to the Emperor resigning his command, partly on the plea of ill health, but chiefly because his recall of the Kertch expedition and the rejection of the Emperor's scheme had placed him in a false position.[29] General Canrobert's resignation was accepted, and by his own wish he resumed command of his old division. On May 19 General Pélissier was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the French army, and the situation was at once completely altered. Writing to Marshal Vaillant, Minister for War at Paris, he said: 'I have already seen Lord Raglan, and we are in complete accord; please ask the Emperor to give me liberty of action indispensable under the actual conditions of the war, and especially in view of the preservation of the intimate alliance of the two countries.' Efforts, however, were still made from Paris to regulate the strategy of the campaign, but they were virtually disregarded, and General Pélissier, acting with Lord Raglan, in the course of a few days carried out a series of important movements which put an end not only to the delays and disappointments that had so long trammelled the actions of the allies, but entirely altered the conditions of the campaign. The strength of the allies towards the end of May was approximately as follows: French 100,000 English 25,000 Sardinians 15,000 Turks 45,000 _May 18._--Accompanied Lord Raglan and La Marmora round the English trenches. The first movement by Pélissier was a renewed attack on the Russian counter approaches in front of the French left, on the night of May 23; and as, owing to the desperate nature of the fighting, the object was not fully accomplished he refused an armistice to bury the dead, and followed it up the following evening with complete success, and his troops then entrenched themselves in the captured cemetery. I accompanied Lord Raglan and Omar Pasha on the second night to the French post of observation. The losses on both sides were very severe, being computed at 2,303 on the part of the French, and at 3,081 of the Russians.[30]