370 THE CANNONADE OF CHAP, yards IVom the nearest of the enemy's forts. On xiii ' . L_ llie left front of this array, and placed, as it were, in eclielon to it, at distances of only from 600 to 800 yards from the nearest of the batteries which they assailed, there were the ships which consti- tuted the in-shore squadron of the English fleet. The four frigates, the sloop, and the gunboat which remained under way moved, hovering, as we have already seen, near the ships of the in- shore squadron, and either supported by their firo the attack on Fort Constantino and the cliff defences, or else from time to time rendered such other services as their facility of movement en- abled them to aiford.* The aspect Great as was the amount of naval strength of the . . Allied line thus Spread out to siuht by the Allied fleets, it of battle. ^ n J > _ can hardly, 1 think, be acknowledged that their battle array wore an aspect portentous of con- quest. Whilst their power was a power im- pending, and not least during that mid-day time when, in the majesty of their unexerted might, they were gliding down, shi}) after ship, to take their assigned positions, both the imagination of the unskilled people of Sebastopol, and the fairly -drawn inferences of minds informed on such things, were conducing to a rational dread of what might be achieved against a port, town,
- The Tribune, tlic Teirililc, and the Sami«on were the three
steam-frigates which had specially been ordered to engage by signal from the Rritannia. — Log of Britannia. But I do not except the Sphinx from the statement in the text ; for it seems that, though ordered to keep ont of range, she occasionally fired. — Admiral's Journal,
