Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/336

 306 THE EMBAKKATION. CHAP, a swarm. Our transports went out in five col- ^^^' umus of only thirty each. Then — guard over all — the English war-fleet, in single column, moved slowly out of the bay.* Here, then, and apart from the bodies of foot and artillery embarked by the French and the Turks, there was an armament not unworthy of England. Without combat, and by the mere stress of its presence, our fleet drove the enemy's flag from the seas which flowed upon his shoreSji* and a small but superb land-force, complete in all arms, was clothed with the power of a great army by the ease with which it could be thrown upon any part of the enemy's coast.} Lord Eaglan had not suffered himself to be dis- concerted by the departure of Monsieur St Arnaud, and the consequent severance of the Allied forces. No steamer was sent to re-knit his communica- tions with the errant French Marshal. when it was anchored at the rendezvous ; and my impression of the scene in the Bay of Baljik is derived partly from some MSS. which have been furnished to nie, but partly also from what struck me as a very good account of it, which I saw in a printed book, by Mr Wood, a spectator. t I am justified in speaking of the English fleet as the force which kept the enemy's sliips in duress, because, as we have seen, the French men-of-war were doing duty as transports, and were not, therefore, in a state for going into action.
 * I did not reach the fleet till some three days afterwards,
 * }; I of course speak here of the inlierent jiowcr of such an

armament, without refirence to the fact that strictly-defined instructions had been addressed to Lord Raglan, and that tlio purport of these had become known to the enemy. The fixed- ness of the i>lan of campaign, and the publicity which it had obtained, reduced the power of the force to the level of its actu.il numbers and il.s intrinsic strength.