“Thomas,” said I to the boy, “run and tell that gentleman Miss Nightingale is coming, or he may take another road, and miss us.” A few minutes after, we met the doctor, who very much regretted not having met us at the General Hospital, according to promise. Several important cases sent from the trenches (among which was the amputation of an arm) had delayed him.
“I suppose, doctor, you use chloroform in all cases of amputation?”
“Yes, we do, Monsieur Soyer, and with very great success, not having lost a single patient since its application.”
By this time we had arrived at the hospital, which is composed of immense rows of huts, erected on the crest of the lofty mountain facing the sea, commanding a beautiful view of the bay. Miss Nightingale observed that no doubt the site was a healthy one, but that it would be very hot in summer and equally cold in winter.
“Well,” said the doctor, “we thought of that ourselves; but really Balaklava is so mountainous, that for the life of us, we could not pitch upon any other spot. However, the least breeze from the sea will be felt in summer, and in winter we must contrive to screen it somehow. Should we have another storm like that of the 14th of last November, we should be blown away.”
One of the men, hearing the storm mentioned, told me that he had witnessed it from beginning to end. I then asked him a few particulars, and he related the circumstance as follows, while Dr. Henderson and Miss Nightingale were walking among the ruins, talking over business matters.
“Would you believe it, sir—the furious waves seemed to fly right over the tower, and the shipping in the bay was almost invisible for a long time. In fact, we thought that all the vessels were lost; from the mass of water blown into the air, we took it to be the level of the sea or the beginning of a second deluge.” Pointing with his hand towards the bay, “That is the spot where the Prince was lost, and further on you see the place where the Retribution was at anchor, with the Duke of Cambridge on board. The storm lasted above ten hours. We were quite wet in the tower, and could not get out. Had we done so, we should probably have been blown down the hill or into the sea. In the ravine above sixty large poplar trees were torn up by the roots by one gust of wind.”
“How was it, in the first place, that you came to be there?”
“Why, you see, sir, we were stationed there to manage the signals for ships to enter the harbour, and I happened to be on duty at the time.”
“It must have been a fearful sight,” said I.