Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 3.djvu/362

 335 THE HALT ON THE CHAP, i^iiey y^-Q-^-Q in at the time of tliciv reachiiirr tli port, I can excuse the Governor of Odessa if he angered a little at the sight of the word 'humanity,' and almost thought himself mocked when he was asked to agree that these poor remains of what once had been soldiers might be considered as ' non-combatants ' until they should be exchanged. If Dundas had boarded the Avon, and looked on those ruins of human forms with which she was laden, his kindly heart would rather have inclined him to utter his sorrow for the havoc inflicted by war, than to speak as though he were indulging in any act of humanity* With only, perhaps, too much truth, he might have palliated any seeming neglect of those poor llussian prisoners by alleging the hardships and privations which he could not find means to avert from our own sick and wounded men. thin" like sacrifice was needed, hut there was none. The poor wounded men were simply an encumlirnnce, which it was con- Ttnient to ahift oil" upon the Kussians.
 * To make the act an act of 'huiiiaiiity,' I suppose some-