e rain began to fall in torrents and a winter of unusual
coldness was upon them. Nights as well as days were passed in the
trenches that had been dug before the strong fortress of Sebastopol,
which the allies were besieging, and the suffering of our English
soldiers was far greater than it need have been, owing to the
wickedness of many of the contractors who had undertaken to supply the
army with boots and stores, and did not hesitate to get these so cheap
and bad as to be quite useless, while the rest of the money set aside
for the purpose was put into their pockets. The doctors gave themselves
no rest, but there were not half enough of them, while of nurses there
were none. The men did what they could for one another, but they had
their own work to attend to, and besides, try as they would it was
impossible for them to fill the place of a trained and skilful woman. So
they, as well as their dying comrades lying patiently on the sodden
earth, looked longingly at the big white caps of the French sisters, who
for their part would gladly have given help and comfort had not the
wounded of their own nation taken all their time. One or two of the
English officers had been followed to the Crimea by their wives, and
these ladies cooked for and tended the sick men who were placed in rows
along the passages of the barracks, but even lint for bandages was
lacking to them, and after the Alma they wrote letters to their friends
in England entreating that no time might be lost in sending out proper
aid.

These letters were backed by a strong appeal from the war correspondent
of the _Times_, Dr. W. H. Russell, and from the day that his plain
account of the privations and horrors of the suffering army appeared in
the paper, the War Office was besieged by women begging to be sent to
the Crimea by the first ship. The minister, Mr. Sidney Herbert, did not
refuse their offers; though they were without experience and full of
excitement, he saw that most of them were deeply in earnest and under a
capable head might be put to a good use. But where was such a head to be
found? Then suddenly there darted into his mind the thought of Miss
Nightingale, his friend for years past.

It was on October 15 that Mr. Sidney Herbert wrote to Miss Nightingale
offering her, in the name of the government, the post of Superintendent
of the nurses in the East, with absolute authority over her staff; and,
curiously enough, on the very same day _she_ had writ