Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 4.djvu/249

BY THE ALLIES. 219 tains and beds of rivers, could be baflled by the chap. VIII inert resistance of six or seven drowned ships. However, there stands the fact, that whatever might have been possible io a man such as Coch- rane invested with the sole command, and un- irammclled by the letters ol" an alliance, the Com- manders of the Anglo-French ileet agreed with the liussians in believing that Sebastopol was safe against an attack from the sea. Therefore, for the purpose of understanding the limit — not of what might be possible in the abstract, but — of what could be done by invaders impressed with tliis belief, it nuiy be taken for granted that, al- though the Anglo-French fleet ruled unchecked (jver all the high seas, its dominion stopped short at the mouth of the Sebastopol roadstead. For securing the undisturbed maritime transport of supplies and reinforcements, whether entering Balaclava, or Kamiesh, or Kazatch, the Anglo- French shipping was all-powerful, nay, indeed, so completely unchallenged, that from the beginning to the end the waters of the Euxine were peace- ful ; and besides, we shall always be seeing that, so far as was consistent with the maintenance of a sure efficiency at sea, the generous zeal of the sailors, together with such of those things as could be supplied from ships' armaments or ships' stores, was from time to time brought ^^■ithout stint to strengthen and comfort the land forces ; but it has to be said once for all, that, as means of breaking through that part of the enemy's line which consisted of seaward defences, the fleets