Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/361

 THE l.AiNDLNG, 331 agemeiit of the lauding. Moving long before chap. dawn in the sleepless Agamemnon, he saw where L the buoy had been placed by the French in the l^eaiing wui. night-time, and gathered in an instant all the genc'j"'*'^' perilous import of the change. He was more than a mere performer of duty, for he was a man driving under a passionate force of purpose. Without stopping to indulge his anger, he darted upon the means of dealing with the evil. He had observed that about a mile to the north of ' Old ' Fort' there was that strip of beach, before spoken of, which divided the Lake of Kamishlu from the sea. There, Lord Eaglan and he now determined New land- that the landing of the Lritish forces should take found' for place.* It was true that this plan would sever at KamWik confidence the wliole statement alDOve made in reference to the buoy, and was supported (during a period of more than a fort- night) by the testimony of Captain Mends. It therefore seems right to give an extract from the private letter in which Lord llaglan narrates the facts to the Duke of Newcastle : — Extract from Lord Raglan's Narrative of the Lauding, ad- dressed as a Private Conmiunication to the Duke of New- castle, the Secretary of War, and dated 'Camp above Old ' Fort Bay, September 18, 1854.' 'The disembarkation of both armies commenced on the ' morning of the 14th. ' It had been settled that the landing should be effected in ' Old Fort Bay, and that a buoy .should be placed in the centre ' of it to mark the left of the French and the right of the Eng- ' lish ; but when the Agamemnon came upon the buoy at day- ' had deposited it on the exti-eme northern end, and had thus ' engrossed the whole of the bay for the operation of his own ' army. This occasioned considerable confusion and delay, the ' English convoy having followed closely upon the steps of
 * One of the most conspicuous of my critics denied with great
 * light, Sir Edmund Lyons found that the French naval officer