Field-beds and litters stood close together in long rows, on which lay wounded, sick, and dying soldiers belonging to every branch of the service, Prussian as well as Austrian. Some bore their sufferings in mute resignation, others sighed and groaned from the horrible tortures that they endured.
The surgeons walked amongst them, examining into the condition of the new arrivals, giving orders where they were to be taken, according to the nature of their wounds, and the hopes they entertained of their recovery. The bandages were renewed before further transport, medicine and refreshment were administered, and operations immediately needful were performed in cabinets erected for the purpose and prepared beforehand. All this was sad and distressing; those who had seen the proud regiments set out, the eyes of the soldiers flashing at the blast of the trumpet, and who now saw the broken suffering forms brought back from the battle-field, where the sacrifice of their blood had not obtained victory for the banners of their country, might indeed sigh sorrowfully, as they thought that the boasted civilization of the human race, with all its progress, had not as yet banished cruel and murderous war from the face of the earth; war, that scourge of mankind, as cruel now as in the grey ages of antiquity, only with this difference, that the inventive powers of man have discovered more certain and annihilating weapons.
Beside the surgeons who examined the wounds with the cold looks of science, were seen the sisters of mercy, those unwearied priestesses of Christian love: calmly and without a sound they glided between the beds, sometimes with gentle hand assisting in the placing of a bandage, sometimes with a kind consoling word putting to the pale dry lips some cooling drink, or strengthening medicine.
And everywhere amongst the busy groups were seen the beautiful and graceful ladies of Vienna, especially the ladies of the higher aristocracy, offering the sick refreshments, handing the surgeons linen bandages, and calling up a smile upon some sad suffering face.
They did not assist much, it is true, these self-constituted Samaritans, whom the love of their country moved to aid in the care of her wounded soldiers, but the sight of them did endless good to the sick and suffering; they felt that in their tenderness there was an acknowledgment of their pain and sacrifices; many of the eyes, misled by fever, believed they saw in the forms around them a sister or a sweetheart, and the vacant weary looks lighted up, the pale quivering lip gently smiled at the kind hands which thus performed the noblest work of woman--alleviating pain and soothing suffering.
So they brought pleasure and consolation to the poor wounded men, these willing nurses; though the surgeons sometimes said they were in the way; but surgeons reckon without that muscle of the heart which drives the blood streaming through the veins, not to be found by the scalpel in an anatomical examination of the human heart, with all its abysses of grief, and its tender fragrant flowers of joy; they know not its power and yet it often puts their art to shame.
The Countess Frankenstein and her daughter were soon surrounded by several ladies of the first society, and with them they began their round amongst the wounded.
Amongst the numerous women who were assembled here, and who it might almost be said followed the fashion of nursing the sick, if indeed such a word ought to be applied to so good and blessed an employment, which was generally engaged in from the noblest motives, was the beautiful Madame Balzer.
Dressed in the plainest dark grey toilette, a small basket containing bandages and nourishment upon her arm, she had followed one of the surgeons and assisted him with such skill that he had thanked her, surprised that it was apparently a lady of distinction and not a sister of mercy who had aided him so efficiently. She looked wonderfully beautiful in her simple dress, with her pale perfect features; from the unusual gracefulness of her movements, and the gentle self-possession with which she approached the beds of the sufferers, a stranger would have thought that amongst all these distinguished ladies of Vienna she was the most distinguished. These ladies, however, did not know her; several of them enquired who that lovely graceful person was, but no one could reply, for in Vienna there is not that public life which in Paris gives to the ladies of the great world the opportunity of knowing perfectly well by sight, their imitators or their models in doubtful society. The name of Madame Balzer was known to many of these ladies, she was frequently the subject of conversation in the salons of Vienna; but only a few of them had seen her, for she went out of doors but little and always rigorously observed les convenances.
She passed along by the beds of the wounded soldiers administering comfort and refreshment; at last she reached the end of a long row, and saw a litter standing at some little distance, on which a soldier lay stretched.