That day poor Linham, who for some days had been very morose, confided to Jack that the wound in his leg so troubled him that he could no longer keep to his duty. Since the battle of the Tchernaya it had broken out afresh, and had been getting gradually worse. Jack and Will at once took him to the regimental doctor, who shook his head when he examined the wound. ‘Bad, bad--very bad,’ he said. ‘This ought to have been seen to long ago. Besides, you are much run down. A steamer starts from Balaclava to-morrow with invalids for England. I will get you sent with them. You have done your work here, and the sea voyage and good treatment at home will put you right.’ Sergeant Linham at first resolutely refused to go; but the colonel backed up the order, and Jack and Will took him down to Balaclava and saw him aboard the _Himalaya_. ‘Ha, hum! good-bye, boys,’ said Linham as they parted on the deck. ‘Somehow I feel my soldiering days are done. The war must be pretty near over now, and when the regiment comes home mind you come and see me if I am still in hospital.’ Jack and Will promised, and shook hands with their old comrade, who in a strangely husky voice said, ‘God bless you, you toads!’ The next day Jack was one of the commander-in-chief’s escort when he rode through Sebastopol, and Jack gazed in wonder at the awful ruins. The houses were roofless and gutted, every inch of ground was ploughed up by shot and shell, and dead and dying Russians lay about on every hand. Life in Sebastopol must have been almost unbearable. The ditch of the Redan was still half-full of the brave fellows who had fallen in the attack, and Jack gazed at them sadly, thinking that if Sebastopol was at last theirs bitter had been the price paid for it.[9] Exactly twelve days after the fall of Sebastopol, on the first anniversary of the battle of the Alma, a review was held, and the Crimean medals just sent out from England were distributed. The medals had no names on them; but some sort of a muddle had been expected. Jack’s medal had four clasps, and at the presentation it was further announced that for the gallant charge made by a squadron of the regiment at the battle of the Tchernaya, by which General de la Marmora and his staff had been saved from capture, the General had intimated that all the officers and non-commissioned officers of that squadron, excluding corporals, would be presented with the Sardinian war-medal, and that six troopers or corporals, to be elected by their comrades, would be similarly decorated. ‘That means that we shall have two medals instead of one,’ said Jack to Will, who had fortunately been with the squadron. ‘Well, the more the merrier,’ said Will.