Close by was a fresh-water lake, and the undulated ground was finely wooded with clumps of forest timber, and covered with short, crisp grass.

No more charming site for a camp could be conceived.

Game abounded, and the officers who had brought guns with them found for a time capital sport.

Everyone was in the highest spirits, and the hopes that the campaign would soon open in earnest were general.

In this, however, they were destined to be disappointed, for on the 24th of June the news came that the Turks had unaided beaten off the Russians with such heavy loss in their attack upon Silistria that the latter had broken up the siege, and were retreating northward.
A weary delay then occurred while the English and French home authorities, and the English and French generals in the field were settling the point at which the attack should be made upon Russia.