le at once concurred in Mr. Herbert's proposal. The
materials for a staff of good nurses did not exist, and she had to
put up with the best that could be gathered on such short notice.

On the 21st, a letter by Mr. Herbert, from the War Office, told the
world that "Miss Nightingale, accompanied by thirty-four nurses,
will leave this evening. Miss Nightingale, who has, I believe,
greater practical experience of hospital administration and
treatment than any other lady in this country, has, with a
self-devotion for which I have no words to express my gratitude,
undertaken this noble but arduous work."

A couple of days later there was a paragraph in the _Times_ from
Miss Nightingale herself, referring to the gifts for the soldiers
that had been offered so lavishly: "Miss Nightingale neither invites
nor refuses the generous offers. Her banking account is open at
Messrs. Coutts's." On October 30th, the _Times_ republished from the
_Examiner_ a letter, headed, "Who is Miss Nightingale?" and signed
"One who has known her." Then was made known to the British public
for the first time who the woman that had gone to the aid of the
sick and wounded really was; then it was shown that she was no
hospital matron, but a young and singularly graceful and
accomplished gentlewoman of wealth and position, who had, not in a
moment of national enthusiasm, but as the set purpose of her life
from girlhood up, devoted herself to the studying of God's great and
good laws of health, and to trying to apply them to the help of her
suffering fellow-creatures.

From October 30, 1854, the heroine of the Crimean war was Florence
Nightingale, and the heroine of that war will she be while the
English tongue exists and English history is read. The national
enthusiasm for her was at once intense, and it grew deeper and more
intense as week by week revealed her powers. "Less talent and energy
of character, less singleness of purpose and devotion, could never
have combined the heterogeneous elements which she gathered together
in one common work and labor of love."

I met the other day a lady who saw something of Miss Nightingale
just before she went out to the East. This lady tells me that Miss
Nightingale was then most graceful in appearance, tall and slight,
very quiet and still. At first sight her earnest face struck one as
cold; but when she began to speak she grew very animated, and her
dark eyes shone out with a peculiarly star-like brightness.