Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/137

WAY OF MINISTERING TO THE ARMIES. 93 spared ;(^) so that it became the painful duty of chap Lord Eaglan to apportion the insufficient steam- L_ power between competing exigencies, determin- ing as best lie could whether this want or that — the want, for instance, of ammunition, or the want of fresh meat — should be the one that — at least for a time — must needs remain unsatisfied. IV. Of the things required for the armies, with. The latter ^ i- _ stages of moreover, the vessels for carrying them, a great supply: part might have been sooner or later obtained ; and, notwithstanding all chances at sea, notwith- standing all Bosphorus troubles, might have come at last into port, or reached the offing in safety ; but there still would remain the task of landing them, of disposing them in magazines, or drawing them up to the camp, and then also the task of distributing them and bringing them into due use. For carrying the process through asefratod Jot » by th'j all those latter stages, the French were happily French • circumstanced. Their harbours — Kamiesh and Kazatcli — no less than the adjacent landing- grounds, were so ample, so convenient, that, vdth the abundance of workmen they had at com- mand, there was nothing to hinder their disem- barkations ; and again, from their ports to their camp, roads traversed at most points with ease, and well ' metalled ' (when the need was once recognised) by a ready sufficiency of ' hands,' completed the lines of communicatidii between France and her besieging army ; {^^) whilst the