When Nature embellished the tint Of thy hills and thy valleys so fair, Did she ever intend that a tyrant should print The footsteps of slavery there? Nay, every Son of Albion "shall be free." _Moore._ * * * * * Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country and their shackles fall. _Cowper._ * * * * * This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise; This fortress, built by Nature for herself, Against infection and the hand of war; This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands; This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. _Shakespeare._ CHAPTER VI. Numerical List of Killed and Wounded in the various Regiments forming the Crimean Army--Loss of the Light and Second Divisions--Loss by Neglect, Hardships, and Starvation--List of the Regiments that formed the various Divisions of the Army--After the Siege--A Dreadful Explosion in the Camp and its consequences--Lieut. Hope and the Fusiliers again leading to almost certain death--A Peep behind the Scenes--Lines on Miss Florence Nightingale--My letter of 26th December, 1855, to my Parents--Concluding Remarks, and Return Home to be nearly Killed with Kindness--Irish Anecdotes--The Royal Fusiliers--A sketch of the "Holy Boys"--The Connaught Rangers not to be despised--Lines on the Campaign. THE BRITISH KILLED AND WOUNDED. The following tabular statement will, I feel confident, prove of much interest. The facts and figures it contains are from official records, and will show upon what regiments the brunt of the fighting fell throughout that arduous campaign, from the 14th September, 1854, until the 8th of September, 1855, or, in other words, from our landing till the fall of Sebastopol. Those regiments marked with the letters LD. formed the Light Division, and those marked 2nd formed the 2nd Division. The reader will be able to see at once by their losses that the brunt of the fighting fell upon those two Divisions. A number of men fell afterwards by the fire from the enemy across the harbour; and again the old Light Division sustained heavy loss at the explosion of the right siege train in November, 1855, which is not included in these figures.