Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/333

 THE EMBARKATION. 303 the English had ten sail of the line (including chap. . XIX two screw-steamers), two fifty-gun frigates, and thirteen lesser steamers of war heavily armed. The anxious duty of disposing and guiding the Arrange- '' ^ T-v 1 c • i^ients in re- convoy was entrusted by Admiral Dundas to bir- gard to tiie '' T I J • tngiish con- Edmund Lyons ; and, under Sir Edmund s dircc- voy. tions, Captain Mends of the Agamemnon framed the programme of the voyage. On the evening of the 6th the captains of transports were called hy signal on board the Emperor, and there, Mends read to them the instructions which he asked them to obey. The captains thus addressed were not in the Queen's service, but they were English seamen, and their answer was characteristic. They were not flighty men. They respectfully asked for an assurance that, in the event of death, their widows would be held entitled to pensions ; and as to the question whether, of their own free will, they would encounter the chances of a naval action, they answered it with three cheers. It is not by the mere muster-roll of the army or the navy that England counts her forces. With his force of horse, foot, and artillery, Lord iiie forcpn Rao'lan had on board the transports (now all col- now on . . board. lected at Baljik)* the full number of ammunition- carts required for the first reserve of ammunition, the beasts required for drawing them, and sixty other carts, also provided with draught - power. But, in order to move so large a force at one trip, it was found necessary to dispense with the b&t- ports lagging, but they were up in sufficient time.
 * At the time here spoken of there were two artillery trans-