On arriving at the fort, Jack found that all the necessary preparations had been made for its evacuation. Colonel Paskiewich and his officers were liberated on their parole not to serve again during the war, while the men were transferred to the Flash, to be conveyed on board some of the larger ships of the fleet.
“I’ll do my best to obtain the liberation of your first lieutenant,” said the colonel to Jack, as he bade him farewell.
“We might arrange for exchanging you with him,” observed Jack.
“Thank you, but I would rather not,” answered the colonel significantly; “I should then be compelled again to fight in this detestable war, whereas at present I may remain as a non-combatant with my family; which I confess—though mention it not, my friend—much better suits my principles and taste.”
“You are a brave man, and defended your fort gallantly,” observed Jack.
“That was my duty,” answered the colonel; “a man, I hold, may be physically brave, and yet abhor fighting. As long as it was my duty to fight, I fought; I can now with honour sheathe my sword, in the earnest hope that I may never again have to draw it, especially against Englishmen. There are many of my countrymen, who, I doubt not, feel as I do. Good-bye, my friend; may we meet again in happier times!”
Jack accompanied the colonel out of the fort, and, as soon as the last Russian had taken his departure, Jack fired the trains which had been laid to the mines in different parts of the fort, and, leaping into his boat, pulled away towards the Tornado. Before the boat had got half-way, the first explosion was heard, the stout walls trembling and shaking, while clouds of dust and smoke, and fragments of stone and timber rose in the air; and in a few seconds the spot where the fort had stood presented a mass of shapeless ruins.
“We’ve done for the fort, at all events,” observed Tom; “I hope that before long our army will treat Sebastopol in the same way.”
“I wish they were likely to do it at so slight a cost,” said Jack, as he thought of Sidney, from whom he had not heard for some time; for he knew what sorrow his loss would cause to his family at Halliburton.
The three commanders, having delivered over their prizes to the admiral, proceeded to carry out their instructions, in conjunction with the Mosquito fleet, engaged in the destruction of the vast magazines of corn and other provisions accumulated at numerous places on the shores of the Sea of Azov, as well as the fleets of vessels loaded with supplies for the Russian army in the Crimea.