ray was directed to stand in and engage the forts,
also accompanied by a French ship. Thus, night after night, the fleet
harassed the unfortunate garrison, while the guns of the besieging army
played on them in the daytime, giving them no rest during the
four-and-twenty hours.

A short time after this a considerable squadron, composed of English,
French, and Turkish ships, with some thousand troops on board, proceeded
to the eastward, for the purpose of attacking Kertch, at the entrance of
the Sea of Azov. Well might the garrison of Sebastopol have felt alarm
when they saw the fleet sailing past the mouth of their harbour, for on
the shores of that inland sea were placed the chief granaries from which
they drew their supplies of provisions.

The _Tornado_ and _Giaour_, with numerous other steam-vessels,
accompanied the fleet. Passing along the rocky and picturesque southern
shore of the Crimea, the expedition soon came off Cape Saint Paul, in a
small bay near which the troops were landed without a casualty; the
steam-vessels scattering a body of Cossacks, the only hostile force that
appeared to dispute the disembarkation. The line-of-battle ships
continued their course along the coast, which at every available spot
was strongly fortified. The ships were standing in to attack the
batteries when a thundering roar was heard, the concussion from which
shook even the vessels at sea. Another and another followed.

"The Russians are performing our work for us, and saving Her Majesty a
considerable expenditure of gunpowder," observed Higson to his
commander. "I am afraid if they play that trick, of which they seem so
fond, they will leave us nothing to do."

"Never fear, we shall be too quick for them," answered Jack; "and, from
what I hear, there are numerous magazines all round the coast."

"The inhabitants of Kertch must be glad to save their town from a
bombardment, for really it is a much handsomer place than I expected to
find in this part of the world, and those lofty stone houses give it a
very imposing appearance," observed Higson.

"At all events, we shall not have injured them," observed Jack; "we are
especially directed to do as little harm as possible to private
property, and to let the Russians understand that we are not warring
with them, but with the Emperor and his Government."

The fleet having thus gained a bloodless victory, the line-of-battle
ships came to an anchor; the larger number of the s