whole days and
nights, while fires blazed in every direction and lit the skies with
their lurid flames.

And now a new phase of the campaign opened, for opposed to the Allies
there was only a field-army. The two armies sat down facing one
another, no battles of importance taking place; but in the meanwhile the
docks and arsenals of Sebastopol were blown up by our engineers.

Russia had lost heavily in men and money, and, moreover, Europe was in
conceit against her. Nicholas had died on March 2nd, and now the new
czar was prevailed upon to listen to reason. A treaty was drawn up and
signed in Paris on March 30th, by which, amongst other terms of peace,
the Black Sea should be neutral in future, and no power should interfere
between the Sultan and his subjects. On April 2nd a last salvo of
artillery from the batteries on the upland slopes announced that the
Crimean war was over.

Phil did not return to Russia, for his wound proved more severe than was
at first imagined, while Douglas was still too lame to be fit for active
service. They therefore remained in England.

There is little more to tell about them. Phil did not find Mr Western
altered. Indeed he seemed more austere than ever, especially as his
adopted son had risen instead of going to the dogs, as he had
prophesied. But Joe was jubilant.

"Didn't I tell him you'd be no disgrace to him!" he cried, taking up his
favourite position in front of the fireplace. "You've done well, Phil,
my lad, and I am proud of you. Fancy, now! It seems to me only a year
ago since you got into that scrape with the mayor. Ha, ha! what a
mischievous young monkey you were! And now you're an ensign in the
30th, and have brave deeds to boast of. But there, you'll get conceited
if I praise you. No, my dear boy, old Joe is right glad to witness your
success, and still more pleased to find that your relatives have turned
up. A year ago you were the adopted son of poor parents. Now you are
the long-lost orphan, the offspring of gentlefolks, and heir to a tidy
fortune when you come of age. Besides--I was forgetting--there are the
cousins, the girl cousins, Phil;" and with a roar of laughter he pinched
our hero's ear.

Phil had, indeed, to use a common expression, fallen on his feet. He
had learnt that he was of no obscure parentage, and in addition, he had
made some excellent friends amongst his relatives, in whose eyes he was
now a young lion, covered with no small am