XXXIV.

CHAP. less upon the waves for want of hands to work her. This time of trial proved the quality of those who remained unstricken. There was a waywardness in the course of the disease, on board British ships, for which it is difficult to account, it spared the officers. On Board British ships of war the seaman is accustomed to look to those who command him with a strong affectionate reliance; and now the poor sufferers, in their childlike simplicity, were calling upon their officers for help and comfort. An officer thus appealed to would go and lie down by the side of the sufferer, and soothe him as though he were an infant. And this trust and this devotion were not

always in vain. Even against malignant cholera the officer seemed to be not altogether powerless; for, partly by holding the tortured sufferer in his kind hands, partly by cheering words, and partly by wild remedies, invented in despair of all regular medical treatment, he was often enabled to fight the disease, or to make the men think that he did.

Almost suddenly the pestilence ceased on board the British ships of war. The dead were overboard, and the survivors returned to their accustomed duties with an alacrity quickened by the delight of looking forward to active operations against the enemy. Instinctively, or else with wise design, both officers and men dropped all mention of the tragedy through which they had passed.*

* I was for several days on board the Britannia without once

XXXIV.

In a few days from the time when the cholera CHAP. had been raging with its utmost fury, the crews of the fleet were ready to undertake the great business of embarking the troops and landing them on the coast of the Crimea.

condition

English

In the camps of the Allied armies, at this time, Weakly the cholera had abated, but had not ceased. There of the were fevers, too, and other complaints. Grievous soldiery. sickness fell upon that part of our camp which had been pitched in the midst of the beauteous scenery of the lake of Devna, but the whole English army at this time began to show signs of failing health. It appeared that, even of the men out of hospital and actually present under arms, hardly any were in the enjoyment of sound health-hardly any were capable of their usual amount of exertion.

This weakly condition of the men was destined to act, with other causes, in bringing upon the army cruel sufferings; and it may be asked whether, with the soldiers in this condition of body, it was right to undertake an invasion. The answer would be this: the medical authorities thought, and with apparently good reason, that, for troops sickening under the fierce summer heats of Bulgaria, the sea voyage, the descent upon another and more healthy shore, and, above all, the animating presence of the enemy, would work a good effect upon the health of the

think, hearing the least allusion to the pestilence which just four weeks before had slain 105 of the ship's crew.

XXXIV.

CHAP. men; and although these hopes proved vain, they seemed at the time to rest upon fair grounds. And, after all, it is hard to say what other disposition of the troops would have united the advantages of being better and possible. To remain in Bulgaria, or to attempt to operate in the neighbourhood of the Danube, was to linger in the midst of those very atmospheric poisons which had brought the health of the army to its then state; and, on the other hand, our people at home would hardly have borne to see the army sent back to Malta, and forced to recede from the conflict, for the bare reason that some of the men were in hospital, and that the rest, without being ill, were said to be in a weakly condition.

CHAPTER XXXV.

XXXV.

ments first

the start

expedi

OUR Admiral had at his command the means for CHAP. conveying the British force to the enemy's shore either in steam-vessels or in sailing-ships towed by Arrangesteam-power; and, until the eve of the embarkation, made for the French believed that their resources would enable ing of the them to achieve a like result. So, at a conference tion. of the four Admirals held on the 20th of August, it was arranged that the whole of the French and English armament should move from the coast at the same time under steam-power; and the 2d of September was looked forward to as the day when the armament might perhaps go to sea, but the exact time would of course depend upon weather and other circumstances beyond the reach of exact calculation.

barka

On the 24th of August the huge operation of The emembarking the armies had already begun. The French tions. embarked 24,000 infantry and 70 pieces of fieldartillery; but since they were straitened in their means of sea-transport, the number of horses they allotted to each gun was reduced from six to four. Invasion of the Crimea. III.

10

XXXV.

**

CHAP. The French embarked no cavalry.* A large portion of the French troops were put on board ships of war, and other portions were distributed among a great number of sailing vessels. Some of these were very small craft.

Attached to the French army, and placed under the orders of Marshal St Arnaud, there was a force of between 5000 and 6000 Turkish infantry. These men were embarked mainly or entirely on board Turkish vessels of war.

Sir Edmund Lyons was charged with the duty of embarking the English forces; and having first got on board our 60 pieces of field-artillery, completely equipped, with the full complement of horses belonging to every gun, he proceeded with the embarkation of the 22,000 infantry and the full thousand of cavalry which Lord Raglan intended to move from Bulgaria to the coast of the Crimea. To put on board ship a body of foot-soldiers is comparatively a simple process; but the shipping of horses involves so heavy a cost, so great an exertion of human energy,

* They took with them from 80 to 100 horsemen to perform escort duty; but of course I do not regard this as an exception to the statement that "no cavalry was embarked."

** Our naval officers are strongly opposed to the practice of putting troops on board ships of war. They are not the men to set their personal convenience against the exigencies of the public service, but they cannot endure that the efficiency of a man-of-war should be for one moment suspended. It is well ascertained, too, that the presence of a great number of soldiers - men who, for the time of the voyage, are almost necessarily idlers · -is injurious to the discipline of a ship.