Fall of Sebastopol--The Nightingale Hospital Fund--A Carriage Accident--Last Months in the Crimea--“The Nightingale Cross”--Presents from Queen Victoria and the Sultan--Sails for Home 217 CHAPTER XX _THE RETURN OF THE HEROINE_ Arrives Secretly at Lea Hurst--The Object of Many Congratulations--Presentations--Received by Queen Victoria at Balmoral--Prepares Statement of “Voluntary Gifts”--Tribute to Lord Raglan 239 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 252 CHAPTER XXII _WISDOM FROM THE QUEEN OF NURSES_ Literary Activity--_Notes on Hospitals_--_Notes on Nursing_--Hints for the Amateur Nurse--Interest in the Army in India--Writings on Indian Reforms 275 CHAPTER XXIII _THE NURSING OF THE SICK POOR_ Origin of the Liverpool Home and Training School--Interest in the Sick Paupers--“Una and the Lion” a Tribute to Sister Agnes Jones--Letter to Miss Florence Lees--Plea for a Home for Nurses--On the Question of Paid Nurses--Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Nursing Institute--Rules for Probationers 298 CHAPTER XXIV _LATER YEARS_ The Nightingale Home--Rules for Probationers--Deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale--Death of Lady Verney--Continues to Visit Claydon--Health Crusade--Rural Hygiene--A Letter to Mothers--Introduces Village Missioners--Village Sanitation in India--The Diamond Jubilee--Balaclava Dinner 314 CHAPTER XXV _AT EVENTIDE_ Miss Nightingale To-day--Her Interest in Passing Events--Recent Letter to Derbyshire Nurses--Celebrates Eighty-fourth Birthday--King confers Dignity of a Lady of Grace--Appointed by King Edward VII. to the Order of Merit--Letter from the German Emperor--Elected to the Honorary Freedom of the City of London--Summary of her Noble Life In Memoriam 338 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS MISS NIGHTINGALE (_From a photograph_) _Frontispiece_ PAGE LEA HURST, DERBYSHIRE 16 EMBLEY PARK, HAMPSHIRE 32 MISS NIGHTINGALE (_From a drawing_) 48 PASTOR FLIEDNER 55 MISS NIGHTINGALE (_From a bust at Claydon_) 61