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114 GREAT AND VAIN PREPARATIONS. CHAP. IV. Prepara- tions for a great can- nonade. sence of that explanation, it would seem in some measure anomalous that they should be determin- ing to withdraw him from the scene of action at a time when they knew that the French had at last accepted his guidance. The actual withdrawal of Sir John Burgoyne from the seat of war was — for him at least — more opportune than the order recalling him. From the 24th of February to the time of his departure on the 20th of March, he had been under the tor- ment of seeing the French acquiesce in the coun- ter-approaches, and this too on ' the Inkerman ' flank ' where his very heart seemed to dwell. Lord Eaglan did not suffer Burgoyne to depart without addressing to him a letter expressive of the grateful appreciation with which he regarded his services. XIII. During all the latter part of the period em- braced by this chapter, the Allies had been not only busied in arming their batteries with more and heavier guns, but also — and with good help at last from the railway our people had made — in bringing up to their heights such huge loads of ordnance ammunition, and other artillery stores as might serve for a great cannonade. The bulk of the allied armies had looked for- ward for weeks and for weeks to the thus pre- pared effort of heavy ordnance power as a mea- sure that seemed to be big with the long-delayed fate of Sebastopol ; but some light newly thrown