While awaiting embarkation, the troops were employed in making fascines and gabions for the siege works, the material for which, abundantly supplied by the woods around them, might not be found on the plains before Sebastopol ; and great quantities of these
28 Preparations for Invasion.
were collected, ready for conveyance, on the south side of Varna Bay.
It was at this time, while the armies were expecting to begin the enterprise, that the cholera broke out among them. Cases had occurred among the French troops while on the voyage from Marseilles ; the pest followed them to their camps, and late in July it reached the British army. Out of three French divisions, it destroyed or disabled 10,000 men, and our own regiments in Bulgaria lost between five and six hundred. It then attacked the fleets, which put to sea in hopes of thus baffling it, but it pursued them, and reduced some ships almost to helplessness. This was a main reason, among others, why the stroke, which could not be dealt too swiftly, was delayed. ~
Meanwhile the preparations went on. In order that the guns might be available immediately on landing, it was desirable that they should be conveyed complete as for action, and, to this end, boats, united in pairs, were fitted with platforms bearing the guns ready mounted on their carriages ; and steamers were bought and chartered for the transport of other material. And now the naval resources of England showed forth in their superiority. The French, in default of sufficient transport, crowded their war-ships with troops, thus unfitting them for battle ; so did the Turks ; while the sea was covered with the small sailing-vessels of both loaded with material. But in one great compact flotilla of transports, in which the steamers were numerous enough to lend the propelling power to all, a British force, of all arms, namely,
four divisions of infantry, the Light Brigade of cavalry, and sixty guns, with all that was necessary to fight a battle, was embarked ; and our war-ships, thus preserving all their efficiency, were left in condition to engage the enemy's should they issue from Sebastopol.