cole!
Quick, quick, the pig's gone!' It was not a false alarm; the pig had
been stolen. As, however, the nest in the sty was warm, it was evident
that the pig had only recently been taken, and a party of officers
started in pursuit of the thieves, shouting laughingly as they rode
off, 'Stole away! Hark away!' The thieves, two Greeks, were quickly
overtaken, and the precious pig was brought back in triumph to Mary
Seacole.

It must not be thought that Mary Seacole devoted herself entirely to
the officers, for her best work was done among the privates on the
battlefield. Sir William Russell bore testimony to her courage and
humanity. 'I have seen her,' he wrote, 'go down under fire, with her
little store of creature comforts for our wounded men; and a more
tender or skilful hand about a wound or broken limb could not be found
among our best surgeons. I saw her at the assault on the Redan, at the
Tchernaya, at the fall of Sebastopol, laden, not with plunder, good old
soul! but with wine, bandages, and food for the wounded or the
prisoners.'

The Inspector-General of Hospitals praised her work, and the
Adjutant-General of the British Army wrote on July 1, 1856:--'Mrs.
Seacole was with the British Army in the Crimea from February, 1855, to
this time. This excellent woman has frequently exerted herself in the
most praiseworthy manner in attending wounded men, even in positions of
great danger, and in assisting sick soldiers by all means in her power.'

From officers who could afford to pay for her medicine or wine she
accepted payment, but a man's need, and not his ability to pay, was her
first thought. On the battle-field she gave strengthening food to
wounded privates which she could easily have sold, at a large profit,
to the officers.

Regardless of the danger she was running--she had many narrow escapes
from shot and shell--she bandaged the wounded, administered
restoratives to the unconscious, and prayed with the dying. Scores of
dying men gave her messages for their loved ones at home, and these she
despatched as speedily as possible. She saw many an old friend laid to
his last rest, and among these was Hedley Vicars, with whom she had
been associated in much good work in Jamaica.

Mary Seacole was known to have a very poor opinion of our French ally,
but a wounded Frenchman received as much attention from her as an
Englishman. The enemy, too, had good cause to bless her, for many a
wounded Russian w