ALAND THE BALTIC IN 1854. 181 



might be attempted under the same management. 

 Cholera soon added its depressing influences, and the 

 hopes which were so high in the spring fell lower and 

 lower as the summer advanced. 



At last came the report that Bomarsund was to 

 "be attacked, and that a French army was coming 

 to make the assurance of conquest doubly sure. A 

 French army ! "Who wishes for more men ? Do not 

 the fleets muster their five thousand bayonets 1 Do 

 they not contain guns of every description field- 

 guns, guns of position, heavy battery guns and men 

 to work them ] "What more is wanting save engineers, 

 with their skill and materials, and a man to command] 

 The answer to these questions soon came, in the cer- 

 tain intelligence that French troops were embarking 

 in English line-of-battle ships at Calais, and that no 

 less a man than Baraguay d'Hilliers had been ap- 

 pointed to command the expedition. There was then 

 work to be done, and the military jealousy which 

 thought " the fewer men the greater share of honour," 

 was lost in the conviction that the year would not 

 close without an event of war. Led-Sund, the south- 

 ernmost anchorage in which the intricate passage 

 leading to Bomarsund terminated, was to be the ren- 

 dezvous, and thither the French, with a portion of 

 the English fleet, consisting of four block-ships and 

 six liners in all, twenty sail of the line, accompanied 

 by a host of steamers repaired towards the end of 

 July to await the arrival of the land forces. 



