Soon after the opening of his model kitchen, M. Soyer received a visit from General Vivian, and while the General was there Miss Nightingale entered the kitchen, and an animated conversation ensued regarding hospital treatment. At the conclusion, M. Soyer relates that the General said, “M. Soyer, Miss Nightingale’s name and your own will be for ever associated in the archives of this memorable war.”
One can understand the ecstasy of the volatile Frenchman at finding himself coupled in such distinguished company and forgive his little conceit, for he was an enthusiastic admirer of our heroine, and has left one of the best pen portraits of her extant. “She is rather high in stature,” he writes, “fair in complexion and slim in person; her hair is brown, and is worn quite plain; her physiognomy is most pleasing; her eyes, of a bluish tint, speak volumes, and are always sparkling with intelligence; her mouth is small and well formed, while her lips act in unison, and make known the impression of her heart—one seems the reflex of the other. Her visage, as regards expression, is very remarkable, and one can almost anticipate by her countenance what she is about to say: alternately, with matters of the most grave import, a gentle smile passes radiantly over her countenance, thus proving her evenness of temper; at other times, when wit or a pleasantry prevails, the heroine is lost in the happy, good-natured smile which pervades her face, and you recognise only the charming woman.
“Her dress is generally of a greyish or black tint; she wears a simple white cap, and often a rough apron. In a word, her whole appearance is religiously simple and unsophisticated. In conversation no member of the fair sex can be more amiable and gentle than Miss Nightingale. Removed from her arduous and cavalier-like duties, which require the nerve of a Hercules—and she possesses it when required—she is Rachel on the stage in both tragedy and comedy.”
CHAPTER XVI
THE ANGEL OF DEATH
Death of Seven Surgeons at Scutari—The First of the “Angel Band” Stricken—Deaths of Miss Smythe, Sister Winifred, and Sister Mary Elizabeth—Touching Verses by an Orderly.
Sleep that no pain shall wake,
Night that no morn shall break,
Till joy shall overtake
Her perfect calm.
Christina Rossetti.