216 THE PREDICAMENT IKCURRED CHAPTER Viri. CHAP. VIII. The fleets : extent of their power to aid attack of Bouth Side. Of the conditions which surrounded the Allies in this their siege of Sebastopol, there were some of so general a kind, and so constant in their appli- cation to each varying stage of the conflict, that it seems right to speak of them here. And espe- cially — for this condition held steadfast from the beginning to the end of the siege — it will be use- ful to convey an idea of the kind of help that was to be got from the presence of the Anglo-rrench fleet, and to mark out beforehand the bounds which were destined to confine its dominion. The war was destined to end without affording any })roof by experiment that Sebastopol nnist needs be impregnable against an attack from the sea, for no irruption into the roadstead was ever attempted by the Allies ; * and the mere fact that an Anglo-French fleet lay hovering over the prey for a year and a lialf without breaking in to seize • Since the naval cannonade of the 17th of October was un- dertaken as a diversion, and not with any design of forcing the entrance of the roadstead, it forms no exception to the state- ment in the texi
