Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/207

SUFFERINGS OF THE ARMIES. 163 from the Crimea to the Bosphorus was too often, chap. if not always, attended wutli the horrors and 1_ sufferings that could not but follow when these ^^^f the hapless martyrs of war — sometimes hundreds .^,'|f^"^^^^^^^^'^ and hundreds together — were brought down in eabysea. thin rags to the shore and placed huddled on the decks of ships ill provided, if provided at all, for the reception of any such charge ; (^'^) and it is difficult to regret the neglect or even the intentional silence of the French official statists who — after allowing a glimpse of the terrible truth, leave a veil on what the patients endured whilst still alive at sea, and say nothing of the fate of those who sank and died on board ship. But for those who — surviving these voyages Good .-state, — might at last reach the shores of the Bos- of the phorus, a welcome change was at hand. It is pitaisonthe , , . j_T ii !_• • Bosphorus. true that, during some months, the untiring eflbrts of the medical officers to heal and to cure proved too often vain ; (^^) and we know too that at a later period there took place a great falling off' in the efficiency of the establishments which France had provided for her sick and wounded troops ; (^2) but there is ground enough for be- lieving that at the time now in question — the time of the first winter campaign — the French hospitals were not only sufficing for the numbers received in their wards, but also well ordered, and, in most respects, well supplied.(^^)