Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/424

 380 THK AVINTEll TKOUHLES. CHA.P. to witness the supplying of wants which before ^^' they had refused to confess. So now, besides using the stores which she had at lier own com- mand, the Lady-in-Chief could impart wants felt in our hospitals to Mr Macdonald with the cer- tainty that he would hasten to meet them by applying what was called the ' " Times " Fund ' in purchasing the articles needed. It was thus that under the sway of motives superbly exalted, a great Lady came to the rescue of our prostrate soldiery, made good the default of the State, won the gratitude, the rapt admiration of an enthusiastic people, and earned for the name she bears a pure, a lasting renown. She even did more. By the very power of her fame, but also, I believe, by the wisdom and the authority of her counsels, she founded, if so one may speak, a gracious dynasty that still reigns supreme in the wards where sufferers lie, and even brings solace, brings guidance, brings hope into those dens of misery that, until the blessing has reached them, seem only to harbour despair. When into the midst of such scenes the young high-bred lady now glides, she wears that same sacred armour — the gentle attire of the servitress — which seemed ' heavenly ' in the eyes of our soldiers at the time of the war, and finds strength to meet her dire task, because she knows by tradition what the First of the dynasty proved able to confront and to vanquish in the wards of the Great Barrack Hospital. (^^) The default we have now seen made good by the Lady-in-Chief was one, as we know, thai