At this period, though in weakened health, Miss Nightingale was under the impression that she was still “good for active service.” When the Indian Mutiny broke out, she wrote to her friend Lady Canning, the wife of the Governor-General, offering to go out to organise a nursing staff for the troops in India. Lady Canning writes, November 14th, 1857: “Miss Nightingale has written to me. She is out of health and at Malvern, but says she would come at twenty-four hours’ notice if I think there is anything for her to do in her ‘line of business.’” Lady Canning did not, however, encourage Miss Nightingale to undertake a task for which she had not the strength, neither did she at that time see the practicability of forming nursing establishments in the up-country stations of India. That Miss Nightingale made the offer is characteristic of her indomitable spirit. CHAPTER XXI THE SOLDIER’S FRIEND AT HOME Ill Health--Unremitting Toil--Founds Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas’s Hospital--Army Reform--Death of Lord Herbert of Lea--Palmerston and Gladstone pay Tributes to Miss Nightingale--Interesting Letters--Advises in American War and Franco-German War. Her heart it means good--for no bounty she’ll take, She’d lay down her life for the poor soldier’s sake, She prays for the dying, she gives peace to the brave, She feels that a soldier has a soul to be saved. The wounded they love her, as it has been seen, She’s the soldiers’ preserver, they call her their queen. May God give her strength and her heart never fail! One of Heaven’s best gifts is Miss Nightingale. _Ballad of the Time._ After Miss Nightingale’s return from the Crimea it was expected that she would become the active leader of the nursing movement which her brilliant example had initiated. “We intend to be merciless to Miss Nightingale in the future,” said Mr. Sidney Herbert, “and see that her abilities are not allowed to slumber. The diamond has shown itself and must not be allowed to return to the mine. Miss Nightingale must be chained to the oar for the rest of her life. It is hers to raise the system of nursing to a pitch of efficiency never before known.” Gladly indeed would Miss Nightingale have started on the great work of nursing reform had her health permitted. The spirit was more than willing, it was eager to start, but the flesh was weak. It was hoped that a few months’ rest would restore her health, and that she would herself be able to organise an institute for the training of hospital nurses, to which purpose she proposed to devote the Nightingale Fund. Unfortunately, as time passed it became apparent that the malady from which she suffered was increasing, and that she would never again be able to lead her old active life.