could help
me in such a project--nay, who would understand why I desired to go,
and what I desired to do when I got there. My funds, although they
might, carefully husbanded, carry me over the three thousand miles,
and land me at Balaclava, would not support me there long; while to
persuade the public that an unknown Creole woman would be useful to
their army before Sebastopol was too improbable an achievement to be
thought of for an instant. Circumstances, however, assisted me.

As the winter wore on, came hints from various quarters of
mismanagement, want, and suffering in the Crimea; and after the
battles of Balaclava and Inkermann, and the fearful storm of the 14th
of November, the worst anticipations were realized. Then we knew that
the hospitals were full to suffocation, that scarcity and exposure
were the fate of all in the camp, and that the brave fellows for whom
any of us at home would have split our last shilling, and shared our
last meal, were dying thousands of miles away from the active sympathy
of their fellow-countrymen. Fast and thick upon the news of Inkermann,
fought by a handful of fasting and enfeebled men against eight times
their number of picked Russians, brought fresh and animated to the
contest, and while all England was reeling beneath the shock of that
fearful victory, came the sad news that hundreds were dying whom the
Russian shot and sword had spared, and that the hospitals of Scutari
were utterly unable to shelter, or their inadequate staff to attend
to, the ship-loads of sick and wounded which were sent to them across
the stormy Black Sea.

But directly England knew the worst, she set about repairing her past
neglect. In every household busy fingers were working for the poor
soldier--money flowed in golden streams wherever need was--and
Christian ladies, mindful of the sublime example, "I was sick, and ye
visited me," hastened to volunteer their services by those sick-beds
which only women know how to soothe and bless.

Need I be ashamed to confess that I shared in the general enthusiasm,
and longed more than ever to carry my busy (and the reader will not
hesitate to add experienced) fingers where the sword or bullet had
been busiest, and pestilence most rife. I had seen much of sorrow and
death elsewhere, but they had never daunted me; and if I could feel
happy binding up the wounds of quarrelsome Americans and treacherous
Spaniards, what delight should I not experience if I could be