od or bad
intentions, I know not which) to tackle him alone,--and the result is
before you. If the Russian is upright in his intentions we have treated
him shabbily, if he is false we have given him a splendid opportunity to
carry out his plans. I pronounce no opinion on Russia; the sin of this
war lies with Europe; certainly not with England, for, whether she
behaved rightly or wrongly, she was not omnipotent at the Conference.
Perhaps I should say that the sin lies with the members of that
Conference who misrepresented Europe, and allowed a notorious criminal
to escape."

"There are various opinions on that subject," said the student.

"There are various opinions on every subject," replied the special, "but
that is no reason why men and women should be content to have _no_
opinion at all, or a bigoted one--which latter means an opinion founded
largely on feeling, and formed before both sides of a question have been
considered."

An ambulance-wagon drove up at this moment. The student and I,
forgetting the subject of discussion, hastened with our brethren to
attend to the wretched beings who were laid shattered, bleeding, and
dying on the ground before us, while the special, seeing that we had run
short of water, caught up a couple of buckets and ran to a neighbouring
spring. It chanced that the ground between our place of shelter and the
spring was at that time swept by the fire of contending troops, but in
spite of this the special coolly filled his buckets and brought them
in--happily without being injured.

The battle raged during the whole of that day all over the plain. Being
taken up almost exclusively with our duties, we surgeons had little time
to observe the progress of the fight; nevertheless, mindful of my
character as a reporter, I took advantage of an occasional moment of
relaxation to jot down a few notes.

There was a hill not far from that on which we stood which was held by a
Russian regiment. Around it the fight appeared to rage very fiercely.
The roar of artillery and the incessant rattle of small arms had by this
time gathered in force until it resembled a storm. Hundreds of white
puffs all over the field told of death from shots which were too far off
to be heard, while the belching of a battery on the hill just mentioned
caused the very earth to tremble.

The Turks at this point executed a flank movement, and attempted to take
the hill by storm. At the same time one of their batter