How do you understand the sentence "Князь Долгорукий стал было во главе обороны" taken from the novel Белая Гвардия by Bulgakov (about revolution period in Kiev)?
"Когда гетмана спрашивали: что же дальше будет? – он успокаивал: „Отстоим, отстоим…“ Князь Долгорукий стал было во главе обороны. Тщетные усилия! Через два дня гетман с остатками немцев покинул Киев. Город был обречен. Всё притаилось… Наступила зловещая тишина… Потом послышалась издали музыка, замелькали на улицах петлюровские солдаты – Киев заняли новые властители..."
I understand this sentence as a form of free indirect speech (несобственно прямая речь), conveying the hetman's thought, i.e.: Yuri Dolgoruki is going to protect the hetman's army. But I feel in trouble with the phrasing стал было. Usually, as far as I know, the use of было after a verb (хотел было, стал было...) suggests the action has been imagined/wanted, but not achieved, or started but not finished. Here I would rather attribute the use of было to the free indirect speech (given that Dolgoruki lived in Middle Age and could not really lead the White Army in 1919). Or should it be understood as "Yuri Dolgoruki was about to take the head of the defense"? Also, I tend to understand this sentence as expressing a confidence in Yuri Dologoruki's protection, more than in the fact he would lead the army.
All of this might look like details, but I need to understand this sentence quite subtly in order to translate it (into French) properly...