The czar would listen to no modification of the Vienna note; so Turkey declared war, and the French and English fleet combined were sent to the Bosporus with orders to pass into the Black Sea, if the Russian fleet came out of Sebastopol. Turkish independence must be maintained, and that could not be unless the Western powers granted their assistance. Thus was war inevitably thrust upon them.
A.D. 1854. The Russian ambassador left London on the seventh of February, and on the same day the English ambassador was recalled. Towards the close of the month a formal declaration of war was issued. Meanwhile, regiments were constantly passing through London, and embarking for action in the East. The queen thus describes one in a letter to King Leopold:—
"The last battalion of the Scotch Fusileers embarked to-day. They passed through the court-yard here at seven o'clock in the morning. We stood on the balcony to see them. The morning fine, the sun shining over the towers of Westminster Abbey, and an immense crowd collected to see the fine men, and cheering them immensely, as with difficulty they marched along. They formed line, presented arms, and then cheered us very heartily and went off cheering. It was a touching and beautiful sight. Many sorrowing friends were there, and we saw the shake of many a hand. My best wishes and prayers will be with them all."
A few days later the queen and prince visited the magnificent fleet at Spithead under the command of Sir Charles Napier. "We are just starting to see the fleet," wrote her majesty to Lord Aberdeen, "which is to sail at once for its important destination. It will be a solemn moment! Many a heart will be very heavy, and many a prayer, including our own, will be offered up for its safety and glory."
Lord Raglan, an old pupil of the Duke of Wellington, who had lost his right arm at Waterloo, was appointed to command the English forces, and Marshal St. Arnaud those of the French. Their instructions were to communicate with Omar Pasha, the Turkish commander, and then to decide whether an immediate attack upon Sebastopol, the Crimean stronghold, was advisable. The three commanders did consult, and did not altogether relish the idea of such an attack; but it had been strongly urged by the English and French governments, and, therefore, was it undertaken.
On the fourteenth of September, twenty-seven thousand English, thirty thousand French, and seven thousand Turks landed without opposition on the shores of the Crimea. On the nineteenth they marched towards the river Alma, and reached its banks at noon of the twentieth. Prince Menschikoff thought his position invulnerable with his Russian batteries, his artillery, and his dense masses of infantry covering the hills; and when he saw the enemy approach, he began to congratulate himself upon the glorious victory that he already considered assured. He did not open fire on them as they crossed to his side of the river; that was not in accordance with his plan. He had told the czar that he could easily hold his position for three weeks; and so he would merely play with the allied troops until his immense reinforcements arrived, and then it would be so easy to pounce down upon them and crush them. So certain did he feel of the result of a fight that some of the precautions that a less arrogant general would have taken were entirely unheeded. The consequence was, that after a desperate combat the allied forces drove the Russians from the field and gained a complete victory.
If an immediate attack had been made upon Sebastopol in the face of this victory, it might have been taken; but there was no Marlborough, no Wellington, in the English army at that time, and the flying Russian troops were not even pursued. Thus they gained time, not only to consider the cause of their defeat, but to increase their defences.
On the third day after the battle, the allied troops gazed in wonder at certain movements of the Russians in the Black Sea. "What were they about?" was the question that was asked on all sides. "Were they going to attack the