" * Yes, and the Malakoff replies twice out of three times,' answered the one who was looking through the field-glass. * This silence is driving me mad! They are firing straight on the Korniloff battery and that is not replying.'
" * There is a movement in the trenches; they are marching in close columns.'
** * Yes, I see it well,' said one of the sailors; * they are advancing by columns. We must set the signal.'
" ' But see, there — see! They are coming out of the trenches! '
" They could see, in fact, with the naked eye black spots going down from the hill into the ravine, and proceeding from the French batteries toward our bastions. In the foreground, in front of the former, black spots could be seen very near our lines. Suddenly, from different points of the bastion at the same time^ spurted out the white plumes of the discharges, and, thanks to the wind, the 'noise of a lively fusillade could be heard, like the patter of a heavy rain against the windows. The black lines advanced, wrapped in a curtain of smoke, and came nearer. The fusillade increased in violence. The smoke burst out at shorter and shorter intervals, extended rapidly along the line in a single light, lilaccolored cloud, unrolling and enlarging itself by turns, furrowed here and there by flashes or rent by black points. All the noises mingled together in the tumult of one continued roar.
" ' It is an assault,' said the officer, pale with emotion, handing his glass to the sailor.
'' Cossacks and officers on horseback went along the road, preceding the commander-in-chief in his carriage, accompanied by his suite. Their faces expressed the painful emotion of expectation.
" ' It is impossible that it is taken! ' said the officer on horseback.
" ' God in heaven — the flag! Look now! ' cried the other, choked by emotion, turning away from the glass. ' The French flag is in the Malakoff mamelon! ' "
It is thus that Tolstoi, the great Russian writer, describes the fall of Sebastopol, as he saw it. At the same moment that the French were taking the Malakoff redoubt, the British were storming the Redan, from which they had been so disastrously repulsed three months before. The flags of the allied armies floated over both forts, and in the night that followed the Russians marched silently out of the fallen city, leaving flames and desolation behind them.
The war was over. The good news sped to England, and the great guns of the Tower of London thundered out " Victory! "
" Victory! " answered every arsenal the country over. " Victory! " rang the bells in every village steeple. " Victory! " cried man, woman, and child throughout the length and breadth of the land. But mingled with the shouts of rejoicing was a deeper note, one of thankfulness that the cruel war was done, and peace come at last.
In these happy days Miss Nightingale's name was on all lips. What did not England owe to her, the heroic woman who had offered her life, and had all but lost it, for the soldiers of her country? What should England do to show her gratitude? People were on fire to do something, make some return to Florence Nightingale for her devoted services. From the Queen to the cottager, all were asking: " What shall we do for her? "
It was decided to consult her friends, the Sidney Herberts, as to the shape that a testimonial of the country's love and gratitude should take in order to be acceptable to Miss Nightingale. Mrs. Herbert, being asked, replied: *' There is but one testimonial which would be accepted by Miss Nightingale. The one wish of her heart has long been to found a hospital in London and to work it on her own system of unpaid nursing, and I have suggested to all who have asked my advice in this matter to pay any sums that they may feel disposed to give, or that they may be able to collect, into Messrs. Coutts' Bank, where a subscription list for the purpose is about to be opened, to be called the * Nightingale Hospital Fund,' the sum subscribed to be presented to her on her return home, which will enable her to carry out her object regarding the reform of the nursing system in England."