Marshal St. Arnaud, were landed in the Crimea, where they gained a great victory on their first landing, called the battle of the Alma, and then besieged the city of Sebastopol.  It was a very long siege, and in the course of it the two armies suffered sadly from the cold and damp, and there was much illness; but a brave English Lady, named Florence Nightingale, went out with a number of nurses to take care of the sick and wounded, and thus she saved a great many lives.  There were two more famous battles.  One was when six hundred English horsemen were sent by mistake against a whole battery of Russian cannon, and rode on as bravely as if they were not seeing their comrades shot down, till scarcely half were left.  This was called the Charge of Balaklava.  The other battle was when the Russians crept out, late in the evening of November 5, to attack the English camp:  and there was a dreadful fight by night and in the early morning on the heights of Inkerman; but at last the English won the battle, and gave the day a better honor that it had had before.  Then came a terrible winter of watching the city and firing at the walls; and when at last, on the 18th of June, 1855, it was assaulted, the defenders beat the attack off; and Lord Raglan, worn out with care and vexation, died a few days after.  However, soon another attack was made, and in September half the city was won.  The Emperor of Russia had died during the war, and his son made peace, on condition that Sebastopol should not be fortified again, and that the Russians should let the Turks alone, and keep no fleet in the Black Sea.

In this war news flew faster than ever it had done before.  You heard how Benjamin Franklin found that electricity—­that strange power of which lightning is the visible sign—­could be carried along upon metal wire.  It has since been made out how to make the touch of a magnet at one end of these wires make the other end move so that letters can be pointed to, words spelt out and messages sent to any distance with really the speed of lightning.  This is the wonderful electric telegraph, of which you see the wires upon the railway.

CHAPTER XLIX.

Victoria.  A.D. 1857—­1860.

Peace had been made after the Crimean war, and everybody hoped it was going to last, when very sad news came from India.  You know I told you the English people had gone to live in India, and had gradually gained more and more lands there, so that they were making themselves rulers and governors over all that great country.  They had some of the regiments of the English army to help them to keep up their power, and a great many soldiers besides—­Hindoos, or natives of India, who had English officers, and were taught to fight in the English manner.  These Hindoo soldiers were called Sepoys.  They were not Christians, but were some of them Mahommedans, and some believed in the strange religion of India, which teached people to believe in a great many gods—­some of them very savage and cruel ones, according to their stories, and which forbids them many very simple things.  One of the things it forbids is the killing a cow, or touching beef, or any part of it.