And at sunset it had not ceased.
Berkley's Sister of Charity clung to his belt in silence for a while.

After a mile or two she began to free her mind in regard to the distressing situation of her companion and herself.

She informed Berkley that the negro drivers had become frightened and had cut the traces and galloped off; that she and the other Sister were on their way to the new base at Azalea Court House, where thousands of badly wounded were being gathered from the battles of the last week, and where conditions were said to be deplorable, although the hospital boats had been taking the sick to Alexandria as fast as they could be loaded.
She was a gentle little thing, with ideas of her own concerning the disaster to the army which was abandoning thousands of its wounded to the charity and the prisons of an enemy already too poor to feed and clothe its own.
"Some of our Sisters stayed behind, and many of the medical staff and even the contract surgeons remained.

I hope the rebels will be gentle with them.

I expected to stay, but Sister Aurelienne and I were ordered to Azalea last night.