Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/350

320 VOYAGE OF THE ARMADA CHAP, for the uii-lit. The French Admiral sent to in- • timate that he would not anchor, but go on all night, in the hope of being ready for the landing the next morning. Vice - Admiral Dundas saw that that hope was vain, because large portions of the French convoy were still so distant that there could be no landing on the following day. The French, it will be remembered, were without steam-power for their transports, and the breezes were light. So, although every hour saw fresh clusters of vessels slowly closing with the fleet, the sea, towards the west, was always strewed with distant sails, and, before the hulls of those hove well in sight, the horizon got speckled again with sails more distant still. So the English Admiral anchored his fleet for the night. The next morning, the 13th, the Ville de Paris, under tow of the Napoleon steamer, had come up ; and, although, so Lite as noon, some of the French ships of war, and very many of their trans- ports, were still distant, they were under such breezes as promised to enable them to close before long with the fleets. So, virtually, the moment- ous voyage was over. The weather — and upon that, in such undertakings, the hopes of nations must rest — the weatlier had favoured the enter- prise ; but the pest of modern armies had not relented. The cholera had followed the men into the transports. Many sickened on board the troopships whilst they were still off Varna or Bal- jik, and were carried back to die on shore. Dur- ing the voyage many more fell ill, and many died.