From Castiglione many of the wounded were sent on to hospitals in other Lombard towns for regular treatment and necessary amputations. As the means of transportation were very limited, long delays were caused and the overcrowding baffles description. The whole city became one vast improvised hospital. The convents, the barracks, the churches and the private houses were filled with wounded. Others were placed on straw in the open courts and parks, with hastily constructed roofs of planks and cloth. The citizens of the town were seen running from street to street, seeking doctors for their suffering guests. Later others came and went with dejected air, begging for assistance to remove the dead bodies, with which they knew not what to do. All the physicians in the place were inadequate and most of the military surgeons were forced to leave with their armies. [Illustration: NAPOLEON III.] By Saturday following the battle the wounded who had been assembled in the city became so numerous that the attempt to cope with the attention they required became impossible, and the most terrible scenes followed. There was food and water, but the wounded died from hunger and thirst, for there were not hands enough to minister to their necessities. There was lint in abundance, but not enough persons to apply it, nor to give it out. To make matters even worse, a sudden panic occurred. A detachment of hussars escorting a convoy of prisoners was mistaken by some of the peasants for Austrians and the report rapidly spread that the Austrian Army was returning. Houses were barricaded, their inhabitants hiding in cellars and garrets, and the French flags were burned. Others fled to the fields, and still others hastily sought Austrian wounded upon whom to lavish care. Down the streets and roads, blocked with vehicles of all kinds carrying wounded, raced frightened horses, amidst a din of curses and cries of fear and pain. Indescribable confusion prevailed; the wounded were thrown from the wagons and some were trampled under foot. Many of those in the temporary hospitals rushed out into the streets, only to be knocked down and crushed, or to fall exhausted from their weakness and fright. What agonies, what suffering, were undergone during those terrible days of June 25th, 26th and 27th! Wounds infected because of the heat, the dust and lack of care became insufferable. Poisonous vapors filled the air. Convoys of wounded still poured in. On the stone floors of the churches men of different nationalities lay side by side; French, Austrians, Slavs, Italians, Arabs, covered the pavement of the chapels, their oaths, curses and groans echoing through the vaulted roofs of the sanctuaries. The air was rent with cries of suffering—“We are abandoned, we are left to die in misery, and yet we fought so bravely.” In spite of the sleepless nights and the fatigue they had endured, they found no rest. In their distress they cried in vain for help.