ntroduced
as 'dressers'--and after one magistrate had complained bitterly of the
cold, and the other of the absence of any news in the evening paper, it
was announced that the patient was prepared; and we were conducted to the
'casualty ward' in which she was lying.

The dim light which burnt in the spacious room, increased rather than
diminished the ghastly appearance of the hapless creatures in the beds,
which were ranged in two long rows on either side. In one bed, lay a
child enveloped in bandages, with its body half-consumed by fire; in
another, a female, rendered hideous by some dreadful accident, was wildly
beating her clenched fists on the coverlet, in pain; on a third, there
lay stretched a young girl, apparently in the heavy stupor often the
immediate precursor of death: her face was stained with blood, and her
breast and arms were bound up in folds of linen. Two or three of the
beds were empty, and their recent occupants were sitting beside them, but
with faces so wan, and eyes so bright and glassy, that it was fearful to
meet their gaze. On every face was stamped the expression of anguish and
suffering.

The object of the visit was lying at the upper end of the room. She was
a fine young woman of about two or three and twenty. Her long black
hair, which had been hastily cut from near the wounds on her head,
streamed over the pillow in jagged and matted locks. Her face bore deep
marks of the ill-usage she had received: her hand was pressed upon her
side, as if her chief pain were there; her breathing was short and heavy;
and it was plain to see that she was dying fast. She murmured a few
words in reply to the magistrate's inquiry whether she was in great pain;
and, having been raised on the pillow by the nurse, looked vacantly upon
the strange countenances that surrounded her bed. The magistrate nodded
to the officer, to bring the man forward. He did so, and stationed him
at the bedside. The girl looked on with a wild and troubled expression
of face; but her sight was dim, and she did not know him.

'Take off his hat,' said the magistrate. The officer did as he was
desired, and the man's features were disclosed.

The girl started up, with an energy quite preternatural; the fire gleamed
in her heavy eyes, and the blood rushed to her pale and sunken cheeks.
It was a convulsive effort. She fell back upon her pillow, and covering
her scarred and bruised face with her hands, burst into tears. The m