Windsor Castle, December 6, 1854.

'Would you tell Mrs. Herbert that I begged she would let me see
frequently the accounts she received from Miss Nightingale or Mrs.
Bracebridge, as I hear no details of the wounded, though I see so many
from officers, &c., about the battlefield, and naturally the former must
interest me most.

'Let Mrs. Herbert also know that I wish Miss Nightingale and the ladies
would tell those poor noble wounded and sick men that no one takes a
warmer interest or feels more for their sufferings or admires their
courage and heroism more than their queen. Day and night she thinks of
her beloved troops. So does the Prince.
'Victoria.'

'God save the Queen,' said the chaplain when he had finished, and from
their hearts the men raised a feeble shout, 'God save the Queen.'

* * * * *

Soon another detachment of nurses arrived from home and undertook the
charge of other hospitals along the shores of the Bosphorus. They were
led by Miss Stanley, sister of the famous dean of Westminster, and the
band consisted partly of ladies who gave their services and partly of
nurses who were paid. Some Irish sisters of mercy also accompanied them,
and these were allowed to wear their nun's dress, but the others must
have looked very funny in the Government uniform--loose gowns of grey
tweed, worsted jackets, short woollen cloaks, and scarves of brown
holland with 'Scutari Hospital' in red letters across them. They were
all made the same size, and 'in consequence,' adds sister Mary Aloysius,
who was thankful that _she_ did not need to present such an odd figure,
'the tall ladies appeared to be attired in short dresses, and the short
ladies in long.'

Clad in these strange clothes they reached their destination and were
placed by Miss Nightingale wherever she thought they were most needed.
Cholera was now raging and the rain in the Crimea had turned to bitter
cold, so that hundreds of men were brought in frost-bitten. Often their
garments, generally of thin linen, were frozen so tightly to their
bodies that they had first to be softened with oil and then cut off. The
stories of their sufferings are too terrible to tell, but scarcely one
murmured, and all were grateful for the efforts to ease their pain. If
death came, as it often did, Miss Nightingale was there to listen to
their last wishes.