Voluntary ThanJcs. 351 



soMiers an hotel and helping myself to a good convenient bed. 

 The landlord lavished a whole flood of French exclamations 

 and complained at the prefecture ; but the prefect, Count 

 Lehndorf, did not deal very severely with me, and the general 

 retained his bed. He was indeed very ill, and I nursed him 

 with great care, myself cooking for him. He, however, 

 wanted to see his dear good wife, and the thought of her did 

 not leave his mind for a moment. As he was so dangerously 

 ill, we telegraphed for her ; but she lived far away in Germany, 

 and day passed after day, each probably appearing to the poor 

 general like a week. At last she arrived after eight days, and 

 the joy of her husband was great ; he repeated over and over 

 again, ' I knew she would come, I knew it.' I arranged a 

 small adjoining room for her, and he had at last the consola- 

 tion of dying in the arms of his beloved wife, a few days after 

 her arrival. The poor woman was nearly heartbroken, and her 

 : ^erings opened all the wounds of my heart ; it was almost 



,/ond my strength. 



All these ladies wrote afterwards kind letters to me, thank- 

 ing me for the care I had bestowed on their husbands, and the 

 little services I was enabled to render them. Though I did 

 not go to the tield to satisfy my vanity or earn any praise, I 

 felt gratified by such letters, of which I received many even 

 from private soldiers, who, when at home amongst their 

 families, remembered that I had dressed their wounds, taken 

 care for their comfort and spoken kind words to them. 



In the night of January 4, we were ordered to Albert, near 

 which place a fight had Occurred in which the 8th regiment of 

 cuirassiers had been engaged. It was bitter cold when Pro- 

 fessor Busch, Dr. von Kiihlewetter, Prince Alfred and myself 

 drove there. We found in Albert, Captain von Marien, of the 

 8th cuirassiers, who lay in a private house. He was very 

 badly wounded, and the Professor decided that he must suffer 

 an amputation. Whilst the Professor cut off his leg I chloro- 

 formed him, and afterwards the captain requested me to 

 telegraph to Deutz for his wite, which was done from Amiens, 

 where I, however, could not go myself, as we were wanted in 

 Bapaume. A fight had taken place near that town on the 

 2nd and 3rd, and on evacuating it the Freneh had carried oif 

 our wounded. 



As we entered Bapaume the alarum was sounding, fur it had 



