The allied
armies had been strongly reinforced from home, and had also been joined by
a Sardinian force, so that the Russians no longer ventured to attack them
so frequently. At length the advances of the allies were completed, and
the final cannonade took place, and lasted for three days. The storming
columns then carried the main forts; and the Russians, finding that
further resistance was useless, evacuated the town during the night, and
the following day it was taken possession of by the combined armies. With
the capture of Sebastopol, 8th Sept., 1855, the war was virtually at an
end, though peace was not formally declared till six months afterwards by
the Treaty of Paris.
The Queen and prince watched intently every movement of the tremendous
drama. In the terrible winter of 1855, the Queen's thoughts were with her
troops, suffering in the inclement weather, amid arrangements that proved
miserably inadequate to their needs. On 6th December 1854, the Queen wrote
the following letter to Mr Sidney Herbert, Secretary of War. 'Would you
tell Mrs Herbert that I begged she would let me see frequently the
accounts she receives from Miss Nightingale or Mrs Bracebridge, as I hear
no details of the wounded, though I see so many from officers, &c., about
the battlefield; and naturally the former must interest me more than any
one. Let Mrs Herbert also know that I wish Miss Nightingale and the ladies
would tell these poor, noble, wounded and sick men that no one takes a
warmer interest, or feels more for their sufferings, or admires their
courage and heroism more than their Queen.
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