Jack Archer: A Tale of the Crimea

by G. A. Henty

  CHAPTER XXV.

  THE CAPTURE OF SEBASTOPOL

  The morning of the 8th of September was bitterly cold, and a keen windblowing from the town raised clouds of dust.

  The storming parties were to be furnished by the light and seconddivisions. The first storming party of the light division was toconsist of 160 men of the 97th regiment, who were to form in rear of acovering party of 100 men, furnished by the second battalion, Riflebrigade. They were to carry ladders for descending into the ditch ofthe Redan. Behind them were to come 200 men of the 97th and 300 of the90th. The supports consisted of 750 men of the 19th and 88thregiments.

  Therefore the assault was to be made by about 750 men, with an equalbody in support, the remainder of the light division being in reserve.

  The covering party of the second division consisted of 100 men of the3d Buffs; the storming party, with ladders, of 160 of the 3d Buffs,supported by 260 of the 3d Buffs, 300 of the 41st, with 200 of the62d, and 100 of the 41st. The rest of the second division were inreserve.

  The first and Highland divisions were to be formed in the thirdparallel.

  The orders were that the British attack was not to commence until theFrench had gained possession of the Malakoff. This they did with butslight loss. The storming columns were immensely strong, as 30,000 menwere gathered in their trenches for the attack upon the Malakoff. Thiswas effected almost instantaneously.

  Upon the signal being given, they leaped in crowds from the advancedtrench, climbed over the abattis, descended the ditch and swarmed upthe rugged slope in hundreds.

  The Russians, taken wholly by surprise, vainly fired their cannon, butere the men could come out from their underground caves, the Frenchwere already leaping down upon them. It was a slaughter rather than afight, and in an incredibly short time the Malakoff was completely inthe possession of the French. In less than a minute from the time theyleaped from the trenches their flag floated on the parapet.

  The Russians, recovered from their first surprise, soon madetremendous attempts to regain their lost position, and five minutesafter the French had entered, great masses of Russians moved forwardto dispute its possession. For seven hours, from twelve to dusk, theRussians strove obstinately to recover the Malakoff, but the masses ofmen which the French poured in as soon as it was captured, enabledthem to resist the assaults.

  At length, when night came on, the Russian general, seeing that thetremendous slaughter which his troops were suffering availed nothing,withdrew them from the attack.

  As the French flag appeared on the Malakoff, the English coveringparties leaped from the trenches, and rushed forward. As they did so astorm of shot and shell swept upon them, and a great number of men andofficers were killed as they crossed the 250 yards between thetrenches and the Redan. This work was a salient, that is to say a workwhose centre is advanced, the two sides meeting there at an angle. Incase of the Redan it was a very obtuse angle, and the attacks shouldhave been delivered far up the sides, as men entering at the angleitself would be exposed to the concentrated fire of the enemy behindthe breastworks which ran across the broad base of the triangle. Theprojecting angle was, however, of course the point nearest to theEnglish lines, and, exposed as they were to the sweeping fire of theenemy while crossing the open, both columns of assault naturally madefor this point.

  The Russian resistance was slight, and the stormers burst into thework. The abattis had been torn to pieces by the cannonade, and themen did not wait for the ladders, but leapt into the ditch andscrambled up on the other side.

  The Russians within ran back, and opened a fire from their traversesand works in the rear. As the English troops entered, they halted tofire upon the enemy, instead of advancing upon them. The consequencewas that the Russians, who were rapidly reinforced, were soon able toopen a tremendous concentrated fire upon the mass of men in the angle,and these, pressed upon by their comrades who flocked in behind them,impeded by the numerous internal works, mixed up in confusion, allregimental order being lost, were unable either to advance or to usetheir arms with effect. In vain the officers strove by example andshouts to induce them to advance. The men had an idea that the placewas mined, and that if they went forward they would be blown into theair. They remained stationary, holding their ground, but refusing togo forward.

  Every minute the Russians brought up fresh reserves, and a terrificfire was concentrated upon the British. The officers, showingthemselves in front, were soon shot down in numbers, and success,which had been in their hands at first, was now impossible.

  For an hour and a half the slaughter continued, and then, as theRussian masses poured forward to attack them, the remnant who remainedof the storming parties leaped from the parapet and made their way asbest they could through the storm of bullet and shot, back to thetrenches.

  The fight had lasted an hour and three quarters, and in that time wehad lost more men than at Inkerman. Our loss was 24 officers and 119men killed; 134 officers, and 1897 men wounded. Had the regimentsengaged been composed of the same materials as those who won theheights of the Alma, the result might have been different, althougheven in that case it is questionable whether the small force told offfor the assault would have finally maintained itself against themasses which the Russians brought up against them. But composed asthey were of young troops, many being lads sent off to the front a fewweeks after being recruited, the success of such an attack, somanaged, was well-nigh impossible from the first.

  It was a gloomy evening in the British camps. We were defeated, whilethe French were victorious. The fact, too, that the attack had failedin some degree owing to the misconduct of the men added to the effectof the failure. It was said that the attack was to be renewed nextmorning, and that the Guards and Highland Brigade were to take part init. Very gloomy was the talk over the tremendous loss which had takenplace among the officers. From the manner in which these had exposedthemselves to induce their men to follow them, their casualties hadbeen nearly four times as large as they should have been in proportionto their numbers.

  Jack Archer was in deep grief, for his brother had been severelywounded, and the doctors gave no strong hopes of his life. He had beenshot in the hip, as he strove to get the men of his company together,and had been carried to the rear just before the Russian advance drovethe last remnants of the assailants from the salient.

  Jack had, with the permission of his commanding officer, gone to sitby his brother's bedside, and to give his services generally as anurse to the wounded.

  At eleven o'clock the hut was shaken by a tremendous explosion,followed a few minutes afterwards by another. Several of the woundedofficers begged Jack to go to Cathcart's Hill, to see what was doing.

  Jack willingly complied, and found numbers of officers and menhastening in the same direction. A lurid light hung over Sebastopol,and it was evident that something altogether unusual was taking place.

  When he reached the spot from which he could obtain a view ofSebastopol, a wonderful sight met his eye. In a score of places thetown was on fire. Explosion after explosion followed, and by theirlight, crowds of soldiers could be seen crossing the bridge. Hourafter hour the grandeur of the scene increased, as fort after fort wasblown up by the Russians. At four o'clock the whole camp was shaken bya tremendous explosion behind the Redan, and a little later themagazines of the Flagstaff and Garden batteries were blown up, and thewhole of the Russian fleet, with the exception of the steamers, haddisappeared under the water, scuttled by their late owners. Athalf-past five two of the great southern forts, the Quarantine andAlexander, were blown up, and soon flames began to ascend from FortNicholas.

  The Russian steamers were all night busy towing boats laden withstores, from the south to the north side, and when their work wasdone, dense columns of smoke were seen rising from the decks. At seveno'clock in the morning the whole of the Russian troops were safelyacross the bridge, which was then dismembered and the boats whichcomposed it taken over to the north side. By this time Sebastopol was,from end t
o end, a mass of flames, and by nightfall nothing save aheap of smoking ruins, surrounded by shattered batteries, remained ofthe city which had, for so many months, kept at bay the armies ofEngland and France.

  All through the night Jack Archer had travelled backwards and forwardsbetween the crest of the hill and the hospital; for so great was theinterest of the wounded in what was taking place that he could notresist their entreaties, especially as he could do nothing for hisbrother, who was lying in a quiet, half-dreamy state.

  The delight of the English army at the fall of the south side ofSebastopol was greatly tempered by the knowledge that it was due tothe capture of the Malakoff by the French. Their own share in theattack having terminated by a defeat, and the feeling which had beenexcited by the fact that the Guards and Highlanders, who had taken nopart whatever in the trench-work during the winter, and who were in ahigh state of efficiency, should have been kept in reserve, while theboy battalions bore the whole brunt of the attack, found angryexpression among the men.

  All that day the allied armies remained quiescent. It was useless toattempt to occupy the burning town, and the troops might have beeninjured by the explosions which took place from time to time of storesof powder.

  The Zouaves, however, and our own sailors made their way down inconsiderable numbers, and returned laden with loot from houses whichhad so far escaped the conflagration.

  Happily the success of the French, and our own failure, did not createany feeling of unpleasantness between the troops of the two nations.As the remnants of the French regiments, engaged in the Malakoff,marched in the morning to their camps, the second division was drawnup on parade. As the leading regiment of Zouaves came along, theEnglish regiment nearest to them burst into a hearty cheer, which wastaken up by the other regiments as the French came along, and as theypassed, the English presented arms to their brave allies and theofficers on both sides saluted with their swords.

  The next day the officers thronged down to see the ground where thefighting had taken place. Around the Malakoff the ground was heapedwith dead. Not less had been the slaughter outside the work known asthe Little Redan, where the French attack had been repulsed withprodigious loss.

  The houses of the portion of the town nearest the batteries were foundfull of dead men who had crawled in when wounded in front. As aconsiderable number of the Russian steamers of war were still floatingunder the guns of their batteries on the north side, preparations weremade at once to mount two heavy guns by the water-side; but theRussians, seeing that the last remains of their fleet would speedilybe destroyed, took matters in their own hands, and on the night of the11th the six steamers that remained were burnt by the Russians.

  After the din which had raged so fiercely for the previous four days,and the dropping fire which had gone on for a year, the silence whichreigned was strange and almost oppressive. There was nothing to bedone. No turn in the trenches or batteries to be served, nothing to dobut to rest and to prepare for the next winter, which was now almostupon them.

  A week after the fall of Sebastopol the anniversary of the battle ofAlma was celebrated. What great events had taken place since thattime!

  None of those who had rested that night on the vine-clad hill they hadwon, dreamed of what was before them, or that they were soon to takepart in the greatest siege which the world has ever known. Smallindeed was the proportion of those who had fought at the Alma nowpresent with the army at Sebastopol. The fight of Inkerman, the mightywear and tear in the trenches, the deadly repulses at the Redan, andabove all, the hardships of that terrible winter, had swept away thenoble armies which had landed in the Crimea, and scarcely one in tenof those who heard the first gun in the Alma was present at the fallof Sebastopol.

  The naval camp was now broken up, the sailors returned on board ship,and the army prepared to go into winter quarters, that is to say, todig deep holes under their tents, to erect sheltering walls, and insome instances to dig complete subterranean rooms.

  A week after the assault Harry Archer was carried down to Balaklavaand put on board ship. The surgeons had in vain endeavored to extractthe bullet, and were unable to give any cheering reply to Jack'sanxious inquiries.

  His brother might live; but they owned that his chances were slight.It was a question of general health and constitution. If mortificationdid not set in the wound might heal, and he might recover and carrythe bullet about with him all his life. Of course he had youth andhealth on his side, and Jack must hope for the best. The report wasnot reassuring, but they could say no more.

  Weeks passed on, and the two armies lay watching each other from theheights they occupied. At last it was determined to utilize themagnificent fleet which had hitherto done so little. Accordingly anexpedition was prepared, whose object was to destroy the forts atKinburn and occupy that place, and so further reduce the sources fromwhich the Russians drew their food.

  The sight was an imposing one, as the allied squadrons in two longlines steamed north past the harbor of Sebastopol. The Britishcontingent consisted of six line-of-battle ships, seventeen steamfrigates and sloops, ten gun-boats, six mortar vessels, and ninetransports.

  On board the men-of-war were 8340 infantry, and 1350 marines. Thetransports carried the Royal Artillery, the medical commissariat andtransport corps, stores of all kinds, and the reserve of ammunition.The French fleet was nearly equal in number to our own.

  Steaming slowly, the great squadrons kept their course towards Odessa,and cast anchor three miles off the town. Odessa is one of the moststately cities of the sea; broad esplanades lined with trees, with abackground of stately mansions; terrace after terrace of fine housesrising behind, with numbers of public buildings, barracks, palaces andchurches; stretching away on the flanks, woods dotted with villas andcountry houses.

  Odessa possessed forts and batteries capable of defending it againstthe attack of any small naval force; but these could have made nodefence whatever against so tremendous an armament as that collectedbefore it. With telescopes those on board were able to make out largenumbers of people walking about or driving on the promenade. Longlines of dust along the roads showed that many of the inhabitants werehastily leaving or were sending away valuables, while on the otherhand the glimmer of bayonets among the dust, told of the coming oftroops who were hurrying in all directions to prevent our landing.

  Odessa was, however, clearly at our mercy, and considerablecontroversy took place at the time as to whether the allies should nothave captured it. Being defended by batteries, it ranked as afortified town, and we should have been clearly justified indestroying these, and in putting the town under a heavy contribution,which the wealthy city could readily have paid. However, it was forsome reason decided not to do so, and after lying at anchor for fivedays, the greater portion of which was passed in a thick fog, thegreat fleet steamed away towards Kinburn. The entrance to the gulfinto which the Dneiper and Bug discharge themselves, is guarded byFort Kinburn on the one side and by Fort Nikolaev on the other, thepassage between them being about a mile across.

  On the 17th fire was opened on Fort Kinburn, and although the Russiansfought bravely, they were unable to withstand the tremendous firepoured upon them. Twenty-nine out of their seventy-one guns andmortars were disabled, and the two supporting batteries also sufferedheavily. The barracks were set on fire, and the whole place was soonin flames. Gradually the Russian fire ceased, and for some time onlyone gun was able to answer the tremendous fire poured in upon them.

  At last, finding the impossibility of further resistance, the officerin command hoisted the white flag. The fort on the opposite shore wasblown up by the Russians, and the fleet entered the channel. Thetroops were landed, and Kinburn occupied, and held until the end ofthe war, and the fleet, after a reconnaissance made by a few gun-boatsup the Dneiper, returned to Sebastopol.

  The winter was very dull. Exchanges of shots continued daily betweenthe north and south side, but with this exception hostilities werevirtually suspended; the chief incident being a
tremendous explosionof a magazine in the centre of the camp, shaking the country for milesaway, and causing a loss to the French of six officers killed andthirteen wounded, and sixty-five men killed and 170 wounded, whileseventeen English were killed, and sixty-nine wounded. No less than250,000 pounds of gunpowder exploded, together with mounds of shells,carcasses and small ammunition. Hundreds of rockets rushed through theair, shells burst in all directions over the camp, and boxes of smallammunition exploded in every direction. The ships in the harbors ofBalaklava and Kamiesch rocked under the explosion. Mules and horsesseven or eight miles away broke loose and galloped across the countrywild with fright, while a shower of fragments fell over a circle sixmiles in diameter.

  On the last day of February the news came that an armistice had beenconcluded. The negotiations continued for some time before peace wasfinally signed. But the war was at an end, and a few days after thearmistice was signed the "Falcon" was ordered to England, to the greatdelight of all on board, who were heartily sick of the long period ofinaction.

  CHAPTER XXVI.

  CONCLUSION

  The "Falcon" experienced pleasant weather until passing the Straits ofGibraltar. Then a heavy gale set in, and for many days she struggledwith the tempest, whose fury was so great that for several hours shewas in imminent danger of foundering.

  At last, however, the weather cleared, and two days later the "Falcon"cast anchor at Spithead. The next day the crew were paid off, and thevessel taken into dock for much-needed repairs.

  Jack's father had already come down to Portsmouth, on the receipt ofhis letter announcing his arrival. The day after the ship was paid offthey returned home, and Jack received a joyful greeting from hisfamily. They found him wonderfully grown and aged during the two yearsof his absence. Whereas before he had promised to be short, he was nowabove middle height. His shoulders were broad and square, his facebronzed by sun and wind, and it was not till they heard his merrylaugh that they quite recognized the Jack who had left them.

  He soon went down to the town and looked up his former schoolfellows,and even called upon his old class-master, and ended a long chat byexpressing his earnest hope that the boys at present in his form werebetter at their verses than he had been.

  A month later Harry, who had quite recovered, joined the circle,having obtained leave, and the two young fellows were the heroes of anumber of balls and parties given by the major and his friends tocelebrate their return.

  Six months later Jack was again appointed to a berth in a finefrigate, commanded by his cousin. The ship was ordered to the Chinaseas, where she remained until, at the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny,she was sent to Calcutta. On their arrival there Jack found thatCaptain Peel, under whom he had served before Sebastopol, wasorganizing a naval brigade for service ashore. Jack at once waitedupon him, and begged to be allowed to join the brigade. His requestwas complied with, and as he had now nearly served his time and passedhis examination he received an appointment as acting lieutenant,obtaining the full rank after the fight in which the brigade wereengaged on their march up to Cawnpore. He was present at thetremendous struggle when the relieving force under Lord Clyde burstits way into Lucknow and carried off the garrison, and also at thefinal crushing out of the rebellion at that spot.

  At the conclusion of the war he rejoined his ship, and returned withher when she finally left the station for England, after an absence offive years. He was now three-and-twenty, and having been twicementioned in despatches, was looked upon as a rising young officer.

  A month or two after his return he received a letter from CountPreskoff, with whom he had, at intervals corresponded ever since hisescape from captivity. The count said that he, with the countess andhis youngest daughter, Olga, were at present in Paris. The two eldergirls had been for some years married. The count said that heintended, after making a stay for some time in Paris, to visitEngland, but invited Jack to come over to pay them a visit in Paris.Jack gladly assented, and a few days later joined his Russian friendsat the Hotel Meurice, in the Rue Rivoli. They received him with thegreatest warmth, and he was soon upon his old terms of familiaritywith them. He found, to his great pleasure, that Olga could now speakEnglish fluently, and as he had forgotten a good deal of his Russian,and had learned no French, she often acted as interpreter between himand her parents. Jack's Russian, however, soon returned to him, and atthe end of a fortnight he was able to converse fluently in it again.

  He found Olga very little altered, but she, on her part, protestedthat she should not have known him again. He had thought very often ofher during the years which had passed, but although he had steadfastlyclung to the determination he had expressed to his friend Hawtry, ofsome day marrying her if she would have him, he was now more alivethan before to the difference between her position and his. Thesplendid apartments occupied by the count, his unlimited expenditure,the beauty of his carriages and horses, all showed Jack the differencebetween a great Russian seigneur and a lieutenant on half-pay. Feelingthat he was becoming more and more in love with Olga, he determined tomake some excuse to leave Paris, intending upon his return to apply atonce to be sent on active service.

  One morning, accordingly, when alone with the count, he said to himthat he feared he should have to leave for England in a few days, andit was probable he should shortly join his ship.

  The count looked keenly at him.

  "My young friend," he said, "have we been making a mistake? Thecountess and I have thought that you were attached to our daughter."

  "I am so, assuredly," Jack said. "I love your daughter with all myheart, and have loved her ever since I left her in Russia. But I amolder now. I recognize the difference of position between a pennilessEnglish lieutenant and a great Russian heiress, and it is because Ifeel this so strongly that I am thinking that it is best for my ownpeace of mind to leave Paris at once, and to return to England and toembark on service again as soon as possible."

  "But how about Olga's happiness?" the count said, smiling.

  "I dare not think, sir," Jack said, "that it is concerned in thematter."

  "I fear, my young friend, that it is concerned, and seriously. Whenyou left us in Russia, Olga announced to her mother that she intendedto marry you some day, if you ever came back to ask her. Although Iwould, I confess, have rather that she had married a Russian, I had sogreat an esteem and affection for you, and owed you so much, that hermother and myself determined not to thwart her inclination, but toleave the matter to time. Olga devoted herself to the study ofEnglish. She has, since she grew up, refused many excellent offers,and when her mother has spoken to her on the subject, her only answerhas been, 'Mamma, you know I chose long ago.' It was to see whetheryou also remained true to the affection which Olga believed you gaveher, that we have travelled west, and now that I find you are both ofone mind, you are talking of leaving us and going to sea."

  "Oh, sir," Jack exclaimed, delighted, "do you really mean that yougive me permission to ask for your daughter's hand!"

  "Certainly I do, Jack," the count replied. "I am quite sure that I cantrust her happiness implicitly to you. The fact that you have nothingbut your pay, matters very little. Olga will have abundance for both,and I only bargain that you bring her over to Russia every year, fortwo or three months, to stay with us. You will, of course, my boy,give up the sea. Now," he said, "that you have got my consent, you hadbetter ask Olga's."

  Jack found that the count had not spoken too confidently as to thestate of Olga's feelings towards him, and a month later a gay weddingtook place at St. James' Church, the count and his wife staying atthe Bristol Hotel, and Jack's father, mother, and elder brother andsisters coming up to the wedding. To Jack's great pleasure, hehappened to meet in the streets of London, two or three days beforehis wedding, his friend Hawtry, whom he had not seen since they partedon the Polish frontier, as their ships had never happened to be onthe same station. Hawtry was rejoiced to hear of his friend's goodfortune, and officiated at the wedding as Jack's best man.

 
; A handsome estate in Sussex was purchased by the count, and this, withthe revenues of the estate in Poland, were settled upon her at hermarriage. There does not exist, at present, a happier couple inEngland than Mr. and Mrs. Archer; for Olga refused to retain her titleof countess. Except when, at times, the cares of a young familyprevented their leaving home, they have, since their marriage, paid avisit every year to Russia.

  The count and countess are still alive, although now far advanced inlife. The count is still hoping for the reforms which he believedthirty years ago would do so much for Russia, but he acknowledges thatthe fulfilment of his hopes appears to be as far off now as it wasthen.

  Hawtry is now an admiral, but is still a bachelor, and he generallyspends Christmas with his old comrade, Jack Archer.