On the 27th of August, most of the English men-of-war which had lain at Baltschik came down to Varna; and, including French, Turkish, and English vessels, there were seventeen sail of the line in the bay. All this time the sickness, though decreasing, continued to affect us. The 5th Dragoon Guards suffered so much--their commanding officer (Major Le Marchant) absent from ill-health, the senior Captain (Duckworth), the surgeon (Pitcairn), and the veterinary-surgeon (Fisher), dead, as well as a number of non-commissioned officers and privates--that it was dis-regimented for a time, and was placed under the command of Colonel Hodge, who incorporated it with his own regiment, the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoons. On the morning of the 29th of August, the brigade of Guards and the brigade of Highlanders moved down to the beach, and were embarked on board the _Simoom_, the _Kangaroo_, and other large steamers. Captain L. T. Jones, H. M. S. _Samson_, Captain King of the _Leander_, and Captain Goldsmith, of the _Sidon_, deserved the greatest praise. The plan of fitting the paddle-box boats, so that they were capable of carrying seven horses each, was due to Lieutenant Roberts, Her Majesty's Steamer _Cyclops_, who worked hard, fitting up boats and pontoons. On 1st of September, the 1st, the 2nd, and the 3rd Divisions of the French army were embarked on board the vessels destined for their conveyance to the Crimea. Marshal St. Arnaud and his staff embarked at Varna, on board the _Berthollet_, on the 2nd of September, and at six o'clock the same evening shifted his headquarters to the _Ville de Paris_ in Baltjik Bay. Monday, September the 4th, was spent by the authorities in final preparations, in embarking stragglers of all kinds, in closing the departments no longer needed at Varna, such as the principal commissariat offices, the post-office, the ordnance and field train, &c. The narrow lanes were blocked up with mules and carts on their way to the beach with luggage, and the happy proprietors, emerging from the squalid courtyards of their whilome quarters, thronged the piers in search of boats, the supply of which was not by any means equal to the demand. Some of those most industrious fellows, the Maltese, who had come out and taken their harbour boats with them, made a golden harvest, for each ceased his usual avocation of floating stationer, baker, butcher, spirit merchant, tobacconist, and poultryman for the time, and plied for hire all along the shores of the bay. [Sidenote: PARTING SCENES.] BOOK II. DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION FOR THE CRIMEA--THE LANDING--THE MARCH--THE AFFAIR OF BARLJANAK--THE BATTLE OF THE ALMA--THE FLANK MARCH. CHAPTER I. Parting scenes--Extent of the Armada--Life at sea--Waiting for orders--Slow progress--The shores of the Crimea--Anchorage.