e everything was being pushed forward for the start. Over
six hundred vessels were assembled, with a tonnage vastly exceeding
that of any fleet that had ever sailed the seas. Twenty-seven thousand
English and twenty-three thousand French were to be carried in this
huge flotilla; for although the French army was considerably larger
than the English, the means of sea-transport of the latter were
vastly superior, and they were able to take across the whole of their
army in a single trip; whereas, the French could convey but half
of their force. Unfortunately, between Lord Raglan, the English
Commander-in-Chief, and Marshal Saint Arnaud, the French commander,
there was little concert or agreement. The French, whose arrangements
were far better, and whose movements were prompter than our own, were
always complaining of British procrastination; while the English
General went quietly on his own way, and certainly tried sorely the
patience of our allies. Even when the whole of the allied armies were
embarked, nothing had been settled beyond the fact that they were
going to invade the Crimea, and the enormous fleet of men-of-war and
transports, steamers with sailing vessels in tow, extending in lines
farther than the eye could reach, and covering many square miles of
the sea, sailed eastward without any fixed destination. The
consequence was, as might be expected, a lamentable waste of time.
Halts were called, councils were held, reconnaissances sent forward,
and the vast fleet steamed aimlessly north, south, east, and west,
until, when at last a landing-place was fixed upon, near Eupatoria,
and the disembarkation was effected, fourteen precious days had been
wasted over a journey which is generally performed in twenty-four
hours, and which even the slowly moving transports might have easily
accomplished in three days.

The consequence was the Russians had time to march round large bodies
of troops from the other side, and the object of the expedition--the
capture of Sebastopol by a _coup de main_--was altogether thwarted. No
more imposing sight was ever seen than that witnessed by the bands of
Cossacks on the low shores of the Crimea, when the allied fleets
anchored a few miles south of Eupatoria. The front extended nine miles
in length, and behind this came line after line of transports until
the very topmasts of those in the rear scarce appeared above the
horizon. The place selected for the landing-place was known as the Old