secute her inquiries on the
spot. While still doubtful as to the best means of reaching the
theatre of war, it occurred to her that she could not do better than
make use of Lord Lydstone's yacht.

It would have to go home eventually--to be paid off and disposed of by
Lord Lydstone's heirs. But there was surely no immediate hurry for
this, and Mrs. Wilders thought she had sufficient influence with
Captain Trejago to persuade him, not only to postpone his departure,
but to take a trip to the Crimea.

In this she was perfectly successful, and the day after Lord
Lydstone's funeral the _Arcadia_, with a fine breeze aft, steered
northward across the Black Sea.

It reached Balaclava on the morning of the 5th of November, and Mrs.
Wilders immediately despatched a messenger on shore to inform the
general of her arrival. That day, however, the general and his brigade
were very busily employed. It was the day of Inkerman!

CHAPTER XVI.

"HARD POUNDING."

Mr. Hobson, as he called himself, had been perfectly right when he
gleefully assured Mrs. Wilders that the Russians were gathering up
their strength for a supreme effort against the allies. Reinforcements
had been steadily pouring into the Crimea for weeks past--two of the
Czar's sons had arrived to stir up the enthusiasm of the soldiers.
Menschikoff, who still commanded, counted confidently upon inflicting
exemplary chastisement upon the invaders. He looked for nothing less,
according to an intercepted despatch, than the destruction or capture
of the whole allied army.

No doubt the enemy had now an overwhelming superiority in numbers. The
total land forces under Prince Menschikoff's command, including the
garrison of Sebastopol, were 120,000 strong. Those numbers included a
large body of cavalry and a formidable field artillery.

The entire allied army was barely half that strength. It was called
upon, moreover, to occupy an immense front--a front which extended
from the sea at Kamiesch to the Tchernaya, and from the Tchernaya, by
a long and circuitous route, back to the sea at Balaclava. This line,
offensive as regards the siege-works, but defensive along the unduly
extended and exposed right flank at Balaclava, was close on twenty
miles. The great length of front made severe demands upon the allied
troops; it could only be manned by dangerously splitting up their
whole strength into many weak units, none of which could be very
easily or rapidly reinforced by