Then the allied forces began a long, fatiguing march to Balaklava, which lies south of Sebastopol, and has a port that would enable them to keep communication between the army and the navy intact. They reached their destination safely, stationed themselves on the heights above the city, and with the fleet in the harbor prepared to attack Sebastopol simultaneously by sea and land. On the seventeenth of October the attack began; but the ships could not get near enough, on account of the sunken war vessels to do very effective work, and so it proved a failure. On the twenty-fifth, the Russians made an attack with the hope of getting possession of Balaklava. The assault was bold and splendid, and with boldness and splendor was it repulsed. It was during this battle that the charge of the Light Brigade was made, of which Tennyson has written in so spirited a manner:-- "'Forward, the Light Brigade!' Was there a man dismayed? Not though the soldier knew Some one had blundered: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not the reason why, Theirs but to do and die,-- Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred." Some one _had_ blundered, but exactly who has never {416}been entirely settled. The officer who received the order was one of the first who fell; and, of the six hundred and seven men who composed the Light Brigade, only one hundred and ninety-eight returned. All the world wondered at the magnificent charge. "When can their glory fade?--" asks the Poet Laureate. Never while courage and heroism are honored. On the fifth of November the battle of Inkermann was fought during a dark, heavy fog. This was the fiercest fight of the campaign, and took place almost entirely in the dark. It was a hand-to-hand combat, and the loss was very heavy on all sides. It was, however, a victory to the allies; and the queen was so well pleased that she expressed her admiration of Lord Raglan's generalship by conferring upon him the baton of field-marshal. Sir George Cathcart was one of the officers who lost his life in this campaign, and the queen wrote a most touching letter of sympathy to his widow. As a mark of regard to his memory, her majesty appointed his daughter Emily one of her maids-of-honor.