to the army hospitals at Sistova.

As it turned out, this post enabled me to understand more of the true
nature of war than if I had remained with the army, and, as I afterwards
had considerable experience in the field, the appointment proved to be
advantageous, though at the time I regarded it as a disappointment.

When I had been some weeks at Sistova I wrote a letter to my mother,
which, as it gives a fair account of the impressions made at the time, I
cannot do better than transcribe:--

"Dearest Mother,--I have been in the hospitals now for some weeks, and
it is not possible for you to conceive, or me to convey, an adequate
description of the horrible effects of this most hideous war. My
opinions on war--always, as you know, strong--have been greatly
strengthened; also modified. Your heart would bleed for the poor
wounded men if you saw them. They are sent to us in crowds daily,
direct from the battle-fields. An ordinary hospital, with its clean
beds, and its sufferers warmly housed and well cared for, with which
you are familiar enough, gives no idea of an army hospital in time of
war.

"The men come in, or are carried in, begrimed with powder, smoke, and
dust; with broken limbs and gaping wounds, mortifying and almost unfit
for inspection or handling until cleansed by the application of
Lister's carbolic acid spray. Some of these have dragged themselves
hither on foot from that awful Shipka Pass--a seven days' journey,--
and are in such an abject state of exhaustion that their recovery is
usually impossible. Yet some do recover. Some men seem very hard to
kill. On the other hand, I have seen some men whose hold on life was
so feeble as to make it difficult to say which of their comparatively
slight wounds had caused death.

"I am now, alas! familiar with death and wounds and human agony in
every form. Day and night I am engaged in dressing, operating, and
tending generally. The same may be said of all connected with the
hospital. The doctors under Professor Wahl are untiring in their
work. The Protestant sisters of mercy, chiefly Germans, and the
`Sanitaires,' who take the weary night-watches, are quite worn out,
for the number of sick and wounded who pour in on us has far exceeded
the computations formed. Everything in this war has been
under-estimated. What do you think of this fact--within the last
fifty days 15,000 men have been ki