In a few days collections, organized throughout the kingdom, had met the expenses of fitting out the expedition; and June 5, 1669, the fleet left Toulon during the finest possible weather, which lasted the whole of the voyage, and rendered it extraordinarily quick. Composed of twenty-two vessels of the line and of three _galiotes_,[196] the fleet joined, on the 17th, fourteen Venetian boats charged with horses, near Cape Sapienza, off the point of the Morea. On the 19th, at five o’clock in the morning, the western extremity of the Isle of Candia was sighted. At the head of the squadron sailed the flag-ship _Le Monarque_, its poop covered with brilliantly-gilt carvings by Puget, and at its mast-head the papal standard, richly embroidered with the arms of the Holy See. At the sight of the land, which was in possession of the Turks, ensigns of a thousand colours were displayed on _Le Monarque_. Every other vessel in its turn immediately joined in this proud salute. The French cannon burst forth, the Turkish batteries replied to it from the port of Canea, and, amidst the uproar of this inoffensive discharge, amidst the resplendent gleams of the rising sun, the fleet passed majestically before the enemy; and, doubling the point of the island, directed its course towards the capital, which it had come to defend. By degrees, as it approached, the delightful spectacle of fertile meadows bounded afar off by green wooded hills, which but lately had been offered to the sight, became changed to a picture of desolation and mourning. During several years the Turks, commanded by the Grand Vizier Mahomet-Kioprili, had little by little taken possession of the entire island, with the exception of the principal town, which the Venetians were holding by desperate efforts against an enemy that unceasingly recruited its losses, and advanced slowly but with indefatigable tenacity. The French fleet, continuing its course, sees before it a country bearing traces of long and cruel devastation. The mountains shorn of their forests to meet the necessities of war, present their bare and ravaged sides to the view. The soil is untilled and arid. Beside immense quarries rise lofty engines for throwing stones upon the besieged. To the deep silence of these solitudes succeeds the reverberations of artillery, whose detonations, at first confused, soon become quite distinct. At times a flash of reddish flames is suddenly perceived,--it is an advanced work blown up by a mine; at others a shell rapidly traverses the air, and, perhaps, lights upon and destroys a building of the town. At last, just as the soldiers, crowded upon the decks, reach the end of their voyage, their attentive looks discern the camp of the Turks, surmounted by waving banners and protected by breastworks, sandy spots where the cavalry are exercising, vast stores of arms, machinery at work, wounded being carried on litters, a formidable army in a state of commotion,