Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/339

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ACROSS THE BLACK SEA.
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shal sailed back. Thus, happily, ceased the impulse which had threatened to sunder the fleets.

Lord Raglan's reproof. Lord Eaglan's answer was stern. He removed the grounds which the Marshal had assigned for his departure, and then pointed gravely to the true line of duty for the future. 'Thanks be to God,' he wrote, 'everything now favours our enterprise. Very soon we shall reach the appointed rendezvous, and then we shall have an opportunity of showing that our manner of acting together remains unaltered, and that the sincerity of which you speak will continue, as at present, to be our guide and our mutual satisfaction.'[1]

Coming from Lord Raglan, this language was a reproof; but the result tends to show that it was happily adjusted to the object in view. its good effect Thenceforth there was no longer any tendency on the part of Marshal St Arnaud to break away from his colleague. From the hour of the first conference at the Tuileries, in the spring of the year. Lord Raglan's authority in the Allied councils Lord Raglan's increasing ascendancy. had been always increasing ; and now, as we shall presently see, it gained a complete ascendant.

The whole Allied Armada comes together at sea. On the 8th the great flotilla, moving under steam, came up with the French and the Turkish sailing fleets which had left Baljik on the 5th of September. The French fleet was in double column, and tacking to eastward across the bows of the steam flotilla ; but upon being approached.

  1. Translated from the French, in which the letter was written.