Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/229

 PliECEDT.NTt Tin: INVASION. 199 of the Allies, he would assemble his army at chat. ir XII. V aril a. Thus the danger passed. Secrecy, it would appear, had been well maintained ; and the world did not know that, for all purposes of concerted military operations, the alliance of the Western Powers had lain in abeyance for five days. Leaviuj;? small detachments at Galliuoli, the The armies . ' moved ac- French and the English armies were now moved cordingiy. up to Varna. General Bosquet's Division, how- ever, was made to feel the consequences of the resolution adopted by the French strategists ; for, this division having actually commenced its march towards Adrianople in furtherance of the tlieii intended plan of taking up a position be- hind the Balkan, jNIarshal St Arnaud, it seems, did not like to issue a countermand which A'ould have disclosed to a sagacious soldiery his double change of counsels — nay, perhaps, might have given them a glimpse of the almost ridiculous destiny from which they had been saved by Lord llaglan. So, whilst all the rest of the allied forces were gliding up to Varna by water, Bosquet's cosquet'* Division continued to follow the direction first march. given it, and was brought into Bulgaria by long, painful marches. If the warlike Zouaves compos- ing part of the division had known that their long, toilsome movement in the midst of the great summer-heats was the result of a plan for placing the French army in position at a distance of several hundreds of miles from the enemy, they would have solaced the labours of the march by tearing