The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon and shadows to gather over the trenches and fortifications of the besieged city when Miss Nightingale started on the return journey. She and her party, proceeding at a sharp gallop through the camps, were overtaken by darkness when only half-way back to Balaclava, and losing their way, found themselves in a Zouave camp, where the men were drinking coffee and singing their favourite African song. They informed the travellers that brigands were roaming about, and that it was dangerous to take the road after nightfall. However, brigands or not, there was nothing for it but to push on down the deep ravine which now faced them. The road was so steep and slippery that one of the gentlemen dismounted to lead Miss Nightingale’s horse by the bridle. When they halted to water the horses, this gentleman received a severe blow in the face by coming in sharp contact in the dark with the head of Miss Nightingale’s steed. He concealed the injury, though his face was streaming with blood and his eyes blackened, until they reached Balaclava hospital, when the Queen of Nurses returned his kind attention by helping to dress his wounds. Proceeding to the harbour, she retired to her state cabin on the _Robert Lowe_, and so ended Florence Nightingale’s adventurous visit to the camp hospitals before Sebastopol. CHAPTER XVIII _STRICKEN BY FEVER_ Continued Visitation of Hospitals--Sudden Illness--Conveyed to Sanatorium--Visit of Lord Raglan--Convalescence--Accepts Offer of Lord Ward’s Yacht--Returns to Scutari--Memorial to Fallen Heroes. Know how sublime a thing it is To suffer and be strong. LONGFELLOW. Nothing daunted by the fatiguing journey to the camp hospitals at headquarters related in the last chapter, Miss Nightingale, although she was feeling indisposed, set out the next morning to visit the General Hospital at Balaclava and the Sanatorium. She was accompanied by the ubiquitous M. Soyer, who was carrying out his culinary campaign at the Crimean hospitals, and attended by her faithful boy Thomas. After spending several hours inspecting the wards of the General Hospital, Miss Nightingale proceeded to the Sanatorium, a collection of huts perched on the Genoese heights nearly eight hundred feet above the sea. She was escorted by Mr. Bracebridge, Dr. Sutherland, and a sergeant’s guard. The weather was intensely hot, as is usual in the Crimea during the month of May, and the journey, following on the fatigue of the previous day, proved a trying one. Half-way up the heights, Miss Nightingale stopped to visit a sick officer in one of the doctor’s huts, and afterwards proceeded to inspect the Sanatorium.