1857 A. D. British rule in India was almost overturned by a general Mutiny, which broke out in Bengal among the Sepoys, or native soldiers in England's Indian army. These, at a given signal, rose in revolt, and put to death their English officers. They took possession of Delhi and other places; and at Cawnpore they savagely murdered great numbers of English gentlemen, ladies, and children, after treating them in a most brutal manner. 10. After a long and desperate struggle, the rebels were subdued by the brave and good Sir Henry Havelock, and by Sir Colin Campbell, afterwards Lord Clyde. Havelock sank under the fatigue of the struggle. The government of India has since been brought directly under the Crown; and in 1876 Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. al-lies', English, French, and Turks. 1 Sin'ope.-A sea-port of the Black Sea, on the coast of Asiatic Turkey. 2 Crime'a. - A peninsula in the south of Russia, stretching into the Black Sea. mu-ti-ny, rising of soldiers or sailors 5 Tchernay'a. - The river which flows into Sebastopol harbour. 6 Del'hi.-On the Jumna, a tributary of the Ganges; 250 miles north-west of Lucknow. It was long the Moham 3 Al'ma.-A river of the Crimea, 17 medan capital of India, and the seat of miles north of Sebastopol. 4 Balaklä/va. - A sea-port 6 miles south of Sebastopol, from which Inkermann is about the same distance eastward. the Great Moguls, the Tartar Emperors, whose dynasty began in 1525. 7 Cawnpore'.-A city on the Ganges; 50 miles south-west of Lucknow, and 628 from Calcutta. 62. THE SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL. 1. What we call the Crimean War was the principal part of a war with Russia in which France and England took part together in support of Turkey. In the Crimean War the Siege of Sebastopol was the great event. 2. Sebastopol lies near the southern point of the peninsula called the Crimea, in the south of Russia, and was fortified, at great cost of money, time, and labour, by several of the Czars.1 A natural cleft in the west ern coast forms a fine harbour; and the city lies on both sides of this inlet, though the greater part of it is on the south side. 1854 A. D. 3. Sailing across the Black Sea from the shore of Turkey, the armies of France and England Sept., landed on the Crimea at Eupatoria Bay. They then marched southward toward Sebastopol. The Russians, however, were not inclined to let them form the siege without 'opposition; and accordingly, when they came to the River Alma they had to fight a battle, to which the stream has given its name. The Battle of the Alma resulted in the defeat of the Russians; and the French and British armies, forming their lines on the south side of Sebastopol, began the siege. Sept. 20. 4. In an attempt which the Russians made to break through the British line near Balaklava, the 93rd Highlanders, led by Sir Colin Campbell, re Oct. 25. pelled the attack of the gray-coated foemen in "a thin red streak, topped with a line of steel." Then, too, occurred that famous Charge of the Light Brigade which Alfred Tennyson has 'celebrated in words of poetic fire. Little more than six hundred Light Horsemen, ordered to advance by some unexplained mistake, rode a mile under a most terrific fire for the purpose of saving a few guns; and only about two hundred returned to the starting-place. 5. The great Battle of Inkermann took place on the day dedicated in England to fire-works It was a Sunday. All the previous night the bells of Sebastopol had been ringing; and a heavy rolling sound, which the British sentinels could not understand, was heard to the right, where the caves and cliffs of Inkermann lay. Nov. 5. and to Guy Fawkes. 6. Through the morning fog and drizzling rain a vast host of Russians came stealing up the slopes, dragging with them ninety large cannon, in the hope of surprising the British. The outposts fired their muskets; and soon along the whole of the British lines were heard the beating of drums and the noise of men hurrying to the place of conflict. 7. All day the battle raged, especially around the Sandbag Battery. Officers and soldiers fought alike; for in the hurry there was no time to form a plan of battle. The grand object of our men was to keep the Russians from coming up the heights, or from turning the flank of the line; and in this object they succeeded nobly. Late in the day the French came to the aid of the almost 'exhausted British troops; and then the Russians retreated. 8. The winter spent by our troops in the trenches before Sebastopol was a time of dreadful suffering, partly caused by the mismanagement of those who had charge of the supplies of food and clothing. Before the winter was over, a railway of six miles was made between the harbour at Balaklava and the British lines; but the worst of the suffering was past by the time the work was finished. 9. After the fourth bombardment, the French and June 18, the British made an attack on the Malakoff and the Redan, two of the most important fortresses of the Russians, which had been greatly strengthened by earth-works. The day chosen for this attack was the anniversary of Waterloo2 a day on which, forty years earlier, the nations now in 'alliance against Russia had 'contended in war on a Belgian plain. In spite of the day, and of the men who made the attack, the enterprise failed. 1855 A. D. 10. Early in autumn the last bombardment began, and preparations were made for assaulting these forts again. The works in the meantime had been made thrice as strong. The French troops went skilfully and cautiously to work, and the General took care that every detail of the plan of attack should be complete, and that every man should know exactly what he had to do. The result of this care was that, in a quarter of an hour, they took the Malakoff--a white tower, rising from a pile of earth-works; and although the Russians fired on them for hours with every gun that could be brought to bear on their position, they held their ground. Sept. 8. 11. As soon as the tricolor flag3 was seen flying on the Malakoff, announcing that the French were 'victorious, a thousand British soldiers clambered out of the trenches, where they had been waiting, and rushed towards the Redan. This fortress, which was in the form of a pair of open compasses, stood with the angle turned towards the British lines. 12. There was this difference between the British and the French attacks, that the French engineers |