Norman McLeod, and of his prayer, which
she says was "very touching," and added, "His allusions to us were so
simple, saying after his mention of us, 'Bless their children.' It gave
me a lump in my throat, as also when he prayed for the dying, the
wounded, the widow, and the orphan."
There came a few months later a ghastly ally of the Russians into the
fight--cholera--which, joined to the two terrible winter months,
"Generals January and February," as the Czar called them, made sad havoc
in the English and French forces, but did not redeem the fortunes of the
Russians. Much mal-administration in regard to army supplies brought
terrible hardships upon the English troops, and accomplished the
impossible in revealing in them new qualities of bravery and heroic
endurance.
It was an awful war, and it lasted as long as, and a little longer than,
the Czar, who died in March, 1855. "of pulmonary apoplexy," it was
announced, though the rumor ran, that, resolved not to survive
Sebastopol, he had taken his own unhappy life. With his death the war was
virtually ended, and his son Alexander made peace as soon as he decently
could with the triumphant enemies of his father.
Through all this distressful time the Queen and the Prince-Consort
manifested the deepest sympathy for, as well as pride in, the English
soldiers.
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