Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 9.djvu/69

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THE RENEWED EXPEDITION TO KEKTCTI. 39 CHAPTER IV. THE RENEWED EXPEDITION TO KERTCH, WITH ITS SEQUEL IN THE SEA OF AZOF, AND ON THE CIRCASSIAN COAST. In even its stage of preparatives, the second chap. armada despatched to open the Cimmerian Bos- ' phorus, had already by fortunate accident achieved a great good, and apparently saved many lives. That which — signalled from the Volokoff Watch-tower on the 23d of May — put a stress on the enemy's counsels, and brought him, however reluctant, to accept defeat from the French, was a movement of vessels and troops going on in the port of Kamiesh for some purpose he could not divine. The activity he then thought mysterious was the stir of embarkation importing a renewed expedition to Kertch. Much of what I premised when recounting the Relevance abortive Expedition begun on the 3d of May viousstate- . . liii.i ments to the must be now borne m mind, or recalled by those subject of this secoud who would have clear ideas of the subsequent in- Expedition.