Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/375

 THE LANDING. 345 by their blanket were dead. Near the foot of the chap XXII hill the men began to dm graves. 1 But meanwhile the landing went merrily on. zeaiai'd It might be computed that, if every man in the thesauors navy had only performed his strict duty, the land- ing would have taken some weeks. It was the su- pererogation, the zeal, the abounding zeal, which seemed to achieve the work. No sailor seemed to work like a man who was merely obeying — nc officer stood looking on as if he were merely com- manding ; and though all was concert and dis- cipline, yet every man was labouring with the whole strength of his own separate will.* And all this great toil went on with strange good- humour — nay, even with thoughtful kindness towards the soldiers. The seamen knew that it concerned the comfort and the health of the sol- diers to be landed dry, so they lifted or handed the men ashore with an almost tender care : yet not without mirth — nay, not without laugh- ing this language to the exertions of the navy at the time of the landing, it may be asked whether there was not some one man who had the merit of giving a right direction to the zeal and energy of the seamen thus toiling on the beach ? There was. The officer who commanded on the beach was Captain Dacres ; and I believe one might safel}' echo the words of him who once said to Captain Dacres, ' The 14th of September was your day.' Both Dundas and Lyons were doing all that was right ; but, so far as concerns the vast operation going on upon the beach, their wisdom lay in the wise trustfulness with which they committed the business to a fit man, and then left him alone, undisturbed and unfrctted by orders. I believe that during the four days and four nights which followed the commencement of the land- ing. Captain Dacres never received any orders from Sir Edmund Lyons. — Note to ilk Edition.
 * When it is seen that I conceive myself warranted in apply-