Before it became so very thick, our only amusement had been watching a considerable force of cavalry and horse artillery, drawn np on the cliffs, about six miles from Odessa and three miles from our anchorage. These were evidently intended to act as a flying column of observation, and to march on any part of the coast which might be threatened by our troops. It consisted of four troops of some Lancer regiment, and, from the time I first saw it, at nine in the morning, till it was lost in the fog, it only moved once, and then it was merely to form in squadrons and trot, wheel round, and draw up in double line again. Now a few rockets would have put these gentry to flight at any time, but we did not seek to inflict useless loss or annoyance upon the enemy. A gun-boat might have run in within easy range and shelled them at her leisure with the most complete impunity; nay, more — had the Admirals desired to inflict such a great blow on Russia, who vaunts herself to be invulnerable, and who boasts that, Antaeus-like, she acquires fresh strength from every overthrow, the mortarvessels, gun-boats, and floating batteries might have gone closeenough to pour long-range shot, rockets, and bombs into the town, without the chance of being hit hj the enemy, save by great luck. The city could not be missed, but it is very nice practice to hit a long low black line — a snake in the grass, wheeling and twisting about — at a distance of 2,500 yards. Let the world know that Odessa was " spared " once more, and, indeed, no one who looked at the city, which blends the magnificence of the East with the solid and massive grandeur of the West, could feel any desire for its destruction, unless it were absolutely necessary for the success of the war and for the attainment of peace.
When the fleet was off Odessa, the advice of the highest person in France on the project of bombarding the town was sought by the French Admiral, and his reply implied a " radical opposition "# to any such proceeding, nor was our Admiral authorized by the home authorities to attack Odessa nnless he was certain of suecess.f Sir Edmund Lyons and Admiral Bruat acted all along in the most perfect accord, but there was this difficulty in their mutual relations, that Admiral Lyons was not under the orders of the
* "Je suis radicalement oppose."
| "Do not attack Odessa unless you are certain of succeeding."
D D
CRIMEA.
British Commander-in-Chief of the army, while Admiral Bruat was directly under the control of Marshal Pelissier, and the latter was opposed to any operations which would require large detachments from the French army. It was proposed at one time to send in a flag of truce to Odessa with some such proposition as this to the Governor — " Are you the Governor of a commercial town or of a military station? If you say Odessa is purely a commercial town, destroy your forts, abandon your efforts to fortify it, deliver up your gun-boats, if any, and we promise to respect the place. If you say Odessa is a military station, you must expect to see it treated as such by the Allied fleets." However, in case of the Russians refusing to give up their guns, &c, and setting us at defiance, it would have been necessary for us to attack the town coute qui coute^ and there were many reasons why at that particular time such a course would not have been desirable.