This despatch had been preceded by a private letter containing this passage:

"The Cabinet is unanimously of opinion that, unless you and Marshal St Arnaud feel that you are not sufficiently prepared, you should lay siege to Sebastopol, as we are more than ever convinced that, without the reduction of this fortress, and the capture of the Russian fleet, it will be impossible to conclude an honourable and safe peace. The Emperor of the French has expressed his entire concurrence in this opinion, and, I believe, has written privately to the Marshal to that effect."

To Siege

A siege, then, was in the programme, but it is certain that even a probability that it would last through the winter would have put an end to the project.

While awaiting embarkation, the troops were employed in making fascines and gabions for the siege works, the material for which, abundantly supplied by the woods around them, might not be found on the plains before Sebastopol ; and great quantities of these were collected, ready for conveyance, on the south side of Varna Bay.

It was at this time, while the armies were expecting to begin the enterprise, that the cholera broke out among them. Cases had occurred among the French troops while on the voyage from Marseilles; the pest followed them to their camps, and late in July it reached the British army. Out of three French divisions, it destroyed or disabled io,ooo men, and our own regiments in Bulgaria lost between five and six hundred. It then attacked the fleets, which put to sea in hopes of thus baffling it, but it pursued them, and reduced some ships almost to helplessness. This was a main reason, among others, why the stroke, which could not be dealt too swiftly, was delayed.

Meanwhile the preparations went on. In order that the guns might be available immediately on landing, it was desirable that they should be conveyed complete as for action, and, to this end, boats, united in pairs, were fitted with platforms bearing the guns ready mounted on their carriages; and steamers were bought and chartered for the transport of other material. And now the naval resources of England showed forth in their superiority.

The French, in default of sufficient transport, crowded their war-ships with troops, thus unfitting them for battle; so did the Turks; while the sea was covered with the small sailing-vessels of both loaded with material. But in one great compact flotilla of transports, in which the steamers were numerous enough to lend the propelling power to all, a British force, of all arms, namely, four divisions of infantry, the Light Brigade of cavalry and sixty guns, with all that was necessary to fight a battle, was embarked; and our warships, thus preserving all their efficiency, were left in condition to engage the enemy's should they issue from Sebastopol.

It was at Varna that the huge multitudinous business of embarkation went on. Piers had been improvised by the engineers, but of course the operation was accomplished under difficulties vastly greater than would have been met with in home ports. The troops moved down slowly from their camps ; the poison in the air caused a general sickliness, and the men were so enfeebled that their knapsacks were borne for them on packhorses during even a short march of five or six miles, all they could at once accomplish.

As they were embarked, they sailed for the general rendezvous in the Bay of Balchick, about fifteen miles north of Varna. The mysterious scourge still pursued them on board ship, and added a horrible feature to the period of detention, for the corpses, sunk with shot at their feet, after a time rose to the surface, and floated upright, breast high, among the ships, the swollen features pressing out the blankets or hammocks which enwrapped them.

After all were assembled, an adverse wind still delayed them; but on the 7th September the whole armament got under weigh in fine weather. Each British merchant steamer wheeled round till in position to attach the tow-rope to a sailing transport (most of these were East Indiamen of the largest class), and then again wheeled till the ship in rear attached itself to a second; then all wheeled into their destined positions for the voyage.

They were formed in five columns, each of thirty vessels, and each distinguished by a separate flag; and the five columns carried the four divisions of infantry, with their artillery, namely, the Light, the First, Second, and Third, complete, and the Light Brigade of cavalry. Few sights more beautiful could be seen than the advance, and the maneuvres which preceded it, of this orderly array of ships, all among the largest in existence, on the calm blue waters, under the bright sky. The French and Turks, notwithstanding the use of their men-of-war for transport, were unable to carry any cavalry.

British Flotilla

Our flotilla was commanded and escorted by Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons in the Agamemnon. Our naval Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Dundas, directed the British Force that was held ready to engage the enemy, including ten line-of-battle ships, two screw-steamers, two fifty-gun frigates, and thirteen smaller steamers carrying powerful guns. The French fleet numbered fifteen line-of-battle ships and ten or twelve war-steamers, and the Turkish eight line-of-battle ships and three war-steamers.

The Russian fleet had, since the first entry of the Allies into the Black Sea, remained in the fortified harbour of Sebastopol. It consisted of fifteen sailing line-of-battle ships, some frigates and brigs, one powerful steamer, the Vladimir, and eleven of a lighter class. Considering the encumbered condition of the French and Turkish squadrons, it seems clear that if, with a fair wind and good officers, the Russian armament had issued from its shelter, it might in a bold attack (though of course at heavy cost) have inflicted tremendous havoc on the transports and troops.

British Land OOB

It is to be noted that the Fourth Division of infantry, the Heavy Brigade of cavalry, and five or six thousand baggage horses belonging to the English army, were still at Varna awaiting embarkation, and the siege train was also there in the ships which had brought it from England. Of these the greater part of the Fourth Division was immediately embarked, and landed in the Crimea in time to advance with the army.

Our five infantry divisions were formed each of two brigades, each brigade of three regiments, and each division numbered about 5000.

The First Division was commanded by the Duke of Cambridge, and was formed of the brigade of Guards, viz., a battalion each of the Grenadiers, Scots Guards, and Coldstream, under General Bentinck; and the 42d, 79th, and 93d Highlanders, under Sir Colin Campbell; with two field batteries.

The Second Division was commanded by Sir De Lacy Evans, and composed of the brigades of Pennefather, 3oth, 55th, 95th, and Adams, 41st, 47th, 49th; with two field batteries.

The Third Division was under Sir Richard England, with Brigadiers Campbell and Eyre, 1st, 38th, 50th; 4th, 28th, 44th regiments; with two field batteries.

The Fourth Division was at first incomplete, its 46th and 57th regiments being still en route. It was under Sir George Cathcart, having the 20th, 21st, 63d, 68th regiments, and the first battalion of the Rifle Brigade; with one field battery.

The Light Division was commanded by Sir George Brown, with the 7th, 23d, and 33d, under General Codrington; and the 19th, 77th, and 88th, under General Buller; also the second battalion of the Rifle Brigade; with one troop of horse artillery, and one field battery.

The Light Brigade of cavalry, under Lord Cardigan, included the 4th and 13th Light Dragoons, the 8th and 11th Hussars, and the 17th Lancers; with one troop of horse artillery.

Commanders

Lord Raglan, Commander of the English Army, was sixty-six years old. He had served on Wellington's staff, and lost his arm at Waterloo. Since those days his sole military experience had been in the office of Military Secretary at the Horse Guards. He was so far well acquainted with military business, but he had never held any command, and while no opportunity had been afforded to him of directing troops in war, his life, for forty years, had been no adequate preparation for it. But he was a courteous, dignified, and amiable man, and his qualities and rank were such as might well be of advantage in preserving relations with our Allies.

Sir George Brown had distinguished himself in the Peninsula as an officer of the famous Light Divisionthe reason, perhaps, for now giving him the command of it-and had been severely wounded at Bladensburg; since when his military life, like his chiefs, had been passed chiefly in office work. He had held many posts, including that of Adjutant-General at the Horse Guards.

Sir De Lacy Evans had a brilliant record from the Peninsular, American, and Waterloo campaigns, and had been Commander of the British Legion in Spain in two very honourable campaigns and many battles.

Sir George Cathcart had in his youth, as aide-de-camp to his father, British Commissioner with the Russian Army, been present at the chief battles in 1813. He was also on Wellington's staff at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. He was favourably known as the writer of commentaries on the campaigns of 1812 and 1813 in Russia and Germany; he had commanded various regiments of cavalry and infantry; and, as Governor of the Cape, had recently conducted successful campaigns against the Kaffirs and the Basutos. On these grounds, his reputation stood so high that a "dormant commission" had been given to him, entitling him to command the army in case Lord Raglan should cease to do so.

Of the Brigadier-Generals the best known was Sir Colin Campbell, who had established a great reputation as a commander of large forces in our Indian wars, after very honourable service in the Peninsula.

Most of the French generals had seen much active service in Algeria. St Arnaud was a gallant man, experienced in the warfare suited to that country, but frothy and vainglorious in a notable degree-and much too anxious to represent himself as taking the chief part to be a comfortable ally.

Though part of the English army had seen service in India, though a large portion of the French troops had made campaigns in Algeria, and though the Russians had for years carried on a desultory war in Circassia, yet the long European peace had left them all with little except a traditional knowledge of civilised war.

No change of method had taken place since the Napoleonic era. But the British and French had both abandoned the musket for the rifle, ours being the Mini6; both it and the French arm were muzzleloaders; some Russian regiments had a rifle, but a, large proportion of them were still armed with the old brass-bound musket which had served them throughout the century ; the artillery also of all remained as before.

As the fleets sailed eastward from Varna across the Black Sea, their course was crossed at right angles by the coast on which they were to land, and of which they might almost be said to know as little as knight-errants, heroes of the romances beloved by Don Quixote, knew of the dim, enchanted region where, amid vague perils, and trusting much to happy chance, they were to seek and destroy some predatory giant.

Crimean Geography

Crim Tartary, better known now as the Crimea, forms part of the Government of Taurida, a province of Southern Russia. From the coast of the Euxine it stretches southward, as an extensive peninsula, into the midst of that sea. Its neck is the Isthmus of Perekop, five miles wide, and its length from thence to Balaklava at its southern end is, in direct line, 120 miles.

All the northern and middle portion is a flat and and steppe, where are sprinkled at wide intervals small villages inhabited by Tartars, whose possessions are flocks and herds; but the remaining and southern end of the peninsula is different indeed in aspect, and in climate. Here begins a mountain region sheltering from the northern blasts the slopes and hollows, the lesser hills of which, covered with pine and oak, enclose valleys of bounteous fertility. Multitudes of wild flowers spring up amid the tall grass; the fig, the olive, the pomegranate and the orange flourish, and the vine is cultivated with success on the southern slopes.

The seaward end runs out into capes resting upon high cliffs, and is indented on its western side by the deep and sheltered harbour of Sebastopol, which, as the chief and indeed only large and safe harbour of the Black Sea, had by the work of generations been converted into a great arsenal and dockyard, defended towards the sea by strong forts, and affording ample anchorage for the Black Sea fleet, and around these works had sprung up a city. The area of the whole peninsula is nearly twice that of Yorkshire, and its population at the time of the invasion numbered something short of 200,000.

Going along the road from Sebastopol to Perekop, the first considerable town reached, sixteen miles distant, is Bakshisarai, "the Garden Pavilion," and in another sixteen miles, where the road quits the hills for the steppe, is Simpheropol, the nominal capital. The part of the country with which the reader has at present to do is included in a parallelo. gram, one side of which is a line outside the western coast from Eupatoria to the level of Balaklava, and the opposite side passes through the hill region, south from Simpheropol to the sea.

In this region the mountains have subsided into hill ranges of some 400 feet high, and through these the watershed pours five streams flowing westward into the Black Sea, all of which formed features in the campaign. The first of these is the muddy rivulet called the Bulganak; seven miles south of it is the valley of the Alma (Apple River) ; another space of seven miles divides the Alma from the Katcha; four miles further the Belbek is reached; and five miles from that the Tchernaya, northwesterly in its course, flows into and forms the head of the harbour of Sebastopol.

The distance from Varna to Eupatoria is about 300 miles. The armament arrived on the 9th at the rendezvous first assigned, "forty miles west of Cape Tarkan." It remained anchored there throughout the 10th, while Lord Raglan and General Canrobert, with the Commanding Engineer, Sir John Burgoyne, and other English and French officers, naval and military, reconnoitered the coast for a landing-place, and observed its character throughout.

At dawn, in a swift steamer, the Caradoc, escorted by the Agamemnon, they were off Sebastopol, and could look through the entrance of the inlet upon the forts, the ships, and the city; then, rounding Cape Kherson, they passed the cliffs on which stood the olateau destined to bear the camps of the besiegers, and arrived off the inlet of Balaklava, deep down between its two ancient high-perched forts. Then, turning back north, they took note of the rivers already enumerated, from the Belbek to the Bulganak, and the coast thence to Eupatoria, when the space for the landing was fixed on, south of that town, in Kalamita Bay. All the 11th and 12th the Turkish and French fleets, great part of which was not propelled, as was ours, by steam, were drawing together, and on the 13th nearly all were opposite the beach, while those still at sea were coming on with a fair wind.

The considerations which had been main elements in the question of the selection of a point of disembarkation were, first, a space sufficient for the armies to land together, and in full communication with each other; and secondly, that the ground should be such as the fire of the ships could protect from the possible enterprises of the enemy. Ship's guns are so formidable in size and range that no batteries capable of rapid motion can hope to contend with them.

No ground fulfilling these conditions was found on the southern coast, where the cliffs stand up steep and high out of the water, nor did the mouths of the rivers afford the necessary advantages. On the other hand, the western coast north of Sebastopol offered no harbour of which the armies could make a secure base, or even a temporary depot; while, south of Sebastopol, the inlet of Balaklava, though small, was deep and well-sheltered, where large steamers could unload close to the shore, and the small bay of Kamiesch was capable of being made a base. These facts will tend to throw light on some questions raised during the progress of the war.

The piece of beach selected to land on, five or six miles north of the Bulganak, was very happily adapted for the purpose.

Two small lakes at the foot of the sea-banks are separated from the sea by strips of beach, and from these strips roads went up the banks. Thus, when the troops were landed here, no attack could be made on them (by night, let us suppose) except bypenetrating into the narrow and easily defended space between the lakes and the sea; while, on the other hand, full facilities existed for their movement to the plains above.

Here the disembarkation, quite unopposed, began on the 14th, the French and Turks landing about two miles lower down the coast, on a similar strip. In the afternoon a ground swell arose, to a degree so violent that many boats were hurled on the strand, and several rafts were dashed to pieces, the troops, drenched with rain, making fires of the fragments. Next day the surf abated, but it was not till the 18th that the whole of the forces were landed, and in condition to advance.

The Fourth Division having arrived and landed, the British force numbered about 26,000 infantry, sixty guns, and the Light Brigade of cavalry, about 1000 sabres. The French had 28,000 infantry, and the Turks 7000, with sixty-eight guns, but with no cavalry. In order that the men might march lightly, especially when so many were still low in strength from the effects of the atmosphere, the knapsacks of the British were left on board ship, the more indispensable articles being taken from them and carried by the soldier, wrapt in the blanket which was to cover him at night.

No tents were landed except for the sick and for general officers. Except such part of the packhorses as could be conveyed in the flotilla, there was no transport landed, but some convoys of the enemy were intercepted, and a number of country vehicles were procured from the Tartars. In this way 350 arabas (the wagons of the country, a rude framework of poles surmounting the axle) were collected and a thousand cattle and sheep, with poultry, barley, fruit, and vegetables.

Chapter III: Battle of the Alma