brought it home with me.

It was on this, as on every similar occasion, that I saw the _Times_
correspondent eagerly taking down notes and sketches of the scene,
under fire--listening apparently with attention to all the busy little
crowd that surrounded him, but without laying down his pencil; and yet
finding time, even in his busiest moment, to lend a helping hand to
the wounded. It may have been on this occasion that his keen eye
noticed me, and his mind, albeit engrossed with far more important
memories, found room to remember me. I may well be proud of his
testimony, borne so generously only the other day, and may well be
excused for transcribing it from the columns of the _Times_:--"I have
seen her go down, under fire, with her little store of creature
comforts for our wounded men; and a more tender or skilful hand about
a wound or broken limb could not be found among our best surgeons. I
saw her at the assault on the Redan, at the Tchernaya, at the fall of
Sebastopol, laden, not with plunder, good old soul! but with wine,
bandages, and food for the wounded or the prisoners."

I remained on Cathcart's Hill far into the night, and watched the city
blazing beneath us, awe-struck at the terrible sight, until the bitter
wind found its way through my thin clothing, and chilled me to the
bone; and not till then did I leave for Spring Hill. I had little
sleep that night. The night was made a ruddy lurid day with the glare
of the blazing town; while every now and then came reports which shook
the earth to its centre. And yet I believe very many of the soldiers,
wearied with their day's labour, slept soundly throughout that
terrible night, and awoke to find their work completed: for in the
night, covered by the burning city, Sebastopol was left, a heap of
ruins, to its victors; and before noon on the following day, none but
dead and dying Russians were in the south side of the once famous and
beautiful mistress-city of the Euxine.

The good news soon spread through the camp. It gave great pleasure;
but I almost think the soldiers would have been better pleased had the
Russians delayed their parting twelve hours longer, and given the
Highlanders and their comrades a chance of retrieving the disasters of
the previous day. Nothing else could wipe away the soreness of defeat,
or compensate for the better fortune which had befallen our allies the
French.

The news of the evacuation of Sebastopol soon carried away all trace