Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/411

CAEE OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED. 3G7 this enterprise in a spirit of absolute devotion; chap. but her sway was not quite of the kind that *_„ many in England imagined. Many held in those days that rigidity, punc- tilio, dry formalism of the military type had had much to do with the causes of failure in the care of our sick and wounded, and therefore hailed gladly the interposition of a gracious lady whose compassion, whose warmth of heart, would break up, as they fancied, the all -blocking ice of bureaucracy, and supplant it by the smooth, easy flow of a genial, impulsive kindness. But with all the rare attributes that made her gracious presence a blessing at the patient's bed- side, this gifted woman, when learning how best to compass the objects of a largely -extended benevolence, had become well -practised, well- versed, in the business of hospital management ; and none knew better than she did that, if kind, devoted attention will suffice to comfort one sufferer, or even, perhaps, four or five, it is powerless to benefit those who number by thou- sands, unless reinforced by method, by organisa- tion, by discipline. She knew that for affording due care to a prostrate soldiery, laid out before her in ranks so appallingly long as to bear being reckoned in miles,(^^) an administrative mechan- ism, both impelled and controlled by authority, was a condition of absolute need ; and, far from being a sparner of rules, she had so deep a sense of their worth as to be seemingly much more in danger of proving too strict than too lax. She understood the dire exigencies of war :