14 CAUSES INVOLVING FRANCE AND ENGLAND CHAP, and about the same time they boarded a raer- ' chantman, and relieved the captain of a portion of his cargo and of the whole of his cash ; * and the Russians were so far from entertaining any idea of secrecy or concealment, that they seem to have hailed neutral merchantmen for the purpose of inquiring about the Frencli and English fleets in the Bosphorus, and asking 'exultingly' if the captures which the llussian fleet had effected were known at Constantinople."!* Tidings cfan FuU ten days I before the fatal .30th of Novem- impending d • f- c Ml attack by bcr, a iuissiaii lorce ot seven sail and one war- the Russmn • ■ • • i , f. o- i fieet. steamer was cruising in sight ot binope, and hovering over the Turkish squadron which lay there at anchor. An express despatched from Samsoon by land on the 22d, bore tidings of this to Lord Stratford, and it must have reached him, it would seem, by the 25th or 26th. On Wednes- day the 23d, the Commander of the Turkish squadron descried a Eussian force of seven sail and two steamers coming down under a north-east wind towards Sinope. The Turkish ships were cleared for action, but after some manceuvring, the llussian force stood out to windward and gained an offing. On the following day six Russian ships of the line, with a brig and two steamers, again made their appearance ; and three of them, under easy sail, stood towards the port of Sinope until the evening. 'In fine,' writes the
- ' Eastern Papers,' part ii. p. 316. + lliid. ]>. 31.').
- Iliiil. So early as the 22il, the appearance of the squadron
was (le.scribcd as haviii_:^ occurred 'sume days back.'
