Here lurks no treason here no envy swells,
Here grows no damned grudges; here are no storms.
No noise, but silence and eternal sleep.—Shakspeare.
During Elfie’s absence from the ward all the sick and wounded had been made as comfortable as circumstances would permit for the night. The greater number of them had been quieted by opium. And even those who could not sleep lay in benign repose, under the influence of that blessed but much abused “gift of God.” Certainly the great good of opium never was so realized and appreciated as in the military hospitals during the war.
Here, for instance, in this one ward, were as many as fifty patients, in every stage of wounds, fever and suffering; so nervous, so restless, so excitable, as not to be able to bear a ray of light, or a sound of noise; yet exposed to the bright flaring of the gas-burners; to the irrepressible groans, tossings and complainings of their companions; and to the necessary movements of the doctors, nurses and assistants.
Think of that you who, when you have a nervous headache, cannot bear the light of a taper, or the fall of a footstep in your room at night.
Where silence, stillness and darkness seemed the very necessary conditions of life, these sufferers had only noise, hurry and glare. And this was quite inevitable in the crowded wards. And from these causes alone delirium and death must have often ensued but for the benign influence of opium.
The nurses administered it pure, or in combination with such other medicines as each case might require. And then the restless, irritable sufferers ceased to disturb themselves and others with their tossings and groanings; and with their wounds dressed, their heads cooled, and their nerves quieted, lay under their smoothly straightened white counterpanes in perfect repose. And now that the patients were quiet, the nurses also were still, and the gas was turned low. And peace descended like a blessing on the place.
As Elfie sat beside her patient, and looked down along the lines of white beds, with their calm occupants, she thought that there was something of Heaven in the aspect of the scene.
While she so looked, she observed in the farthest corner of the room, near the last bed on the opposite side, a group gathered.