Page:Portraits of celebrated women Florence Nightingale.djvu/24

124 secret, out of dread of that publicity which she has ever carefully shunned. Not only were the day and the spot of her probable landing preserved unknown, lest the popular welcome that would have greeted her arrival should take place; but desirous of maintaining the strictest incognito, she refused the offer of a passage in a British man-of-war, and embarked on board a French vessel, passing through France by night, and traveling through her own country unrecognized, till she arrived at her own home in Derbyshire, on Friday, August 15, 1856. There was one gracious welcome that Miss Nightingale could not but accept, and that was from the royal lady who was the sovereign head of the army, which had so long been the especial object of Miss Nightingale's devoted care. A visit of some days at Balmoral, where the Queen was then staying, in highland seclusion and enjoyment, was spent by Miss Nightingale in the sunshine of kindly favor; being treated, during her sojourn there, with the most marked distinction by her Majesty and every member of the royal family.

Since her return home. Miss Nightingale's name has met the public ear only in the quiet deeds of practical goodness consistent with her whole career, or in the record of patient suffering, her constitution never having recovered its tone of health. The recent accounts of her failing strength render it quite probable that, before the public shall read these pages, Mercy's Missionary will have become Heaven's Angel.

In Florence Nightingale all the world glorifies a woman who embodies the principle of devotion, in the widest sense of the word; true devoutness to God—worshiping him by best service, in benefiting her fellow-mortals, and fervent consecration of herself to a high and immortal cause.