Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/372

 342 THE LANDING. CHAP, and I imagine that he did not even know how •^^^^' to try the exact strength and import of words in the way that a lettered man does. Upon the whole, his qualities were of such a kind as to make it impossible for him to be M'ithout great weight in the army. His friends would call hira a man plainly fitted for high command — his adversaries would say that power in his hands was likely to be used dangerously ; but all would alike agree that, whether for good or whether for evil, he had from nature the means of impress- ing his own will on troops. The first The arrangements of the French were like those ing.^ '"' ' of the English; and at half-past eight o'clock on the morning of the 14th of September 1854, their first boat touched the shore. The English had made such good haste to retrieve the time spent in moving to their new landing-place, that very soon afterwai'ds their disembarkation began. The morning was fine ; the sea nearly smooth. The troops of the Light Division were in the boats, and the seamen were at their oars, expect- ing the signal. The signal was given, and in- stantly, from along the whole of the first line of transports, an array of boats freighted with troops — boats ranged upon a front of more than a mile — began to dart in towards the shore. It was said that the boat commanded by Vesey of the "Brit- annia was the first to touch the beach.* He Avas to land has excited more interest than it apparently deserves ; for the lauding did not take place in face of the enemy. Per
 * The question as to which of the English boats was the first