At Marseilles they embarked for Constantinople in the _Vectis_, a steamer of the Peninsular line. Alas! the elements showed no more favour to the “Angel Band” than they did to St. Paul in the same seas. The passage was a terrible one. A hurricane blew straight against the _Vectis_ in the Mediterranean, and for a time the ship was in danger. The company reached Malta on October 31st, and after a brief stay set sail for Scutari. Miss Nightingale arrived at the scene of her labours on November 4th, the day before the battle of Inkerman. What that victory meant in the tale of suffering and wounded men even the hospital authorities then formed no adequate conjecture. Never surely did a band of women arriving in an unknown land meet such a gigantic task. The sufferers already in hospital had heard of the coming of the sisters, but the news seemed too good to be true, and when Miss Nightingale went her first round of the wards, accompanied by members of her devoted band, “Tommy’s” heart was full. One poor fellow burst into tears as he cried, “I can’t help it, I can’t indeed, when I see them. Only think of English women coming out here to nurse us! It seems so homelike and comfortable.” CHAPTER XII _THE LADY-IN-CHIEF_ The Barrack Hospital--Overwhelming Numbers of Sick and Wounded--General Disorder--Florence Nightingale’s “Commanding Genius”--The Lady with the Brain--The Nurses’ Tower--Influence over Men in Authority. A perfect woman, nobly planned, To warn, to comfort and command; And yet a spirit still and bright, With something of an angel light. WORDSWORTH. The official position which the Government had accorded Miss Nightingale was Superintendent of the Nursing Staff in the East, and the title by which she eventually became known was that of Lady-in-Chief. Her control extended over the nursing staffs of all the hospitals, some eight in number, in which our wounded soldiers were placed on the Bosphorus and the Levantine. The first and chief scene of Miss Nightingale’s personal ministrations, however, was the great Barrack Hospital at Scutari, lent to the British Government by the Turkish authorities. It was beautifully situated on a hill overlooking the glittering waters of the Bosphorus, and commanded a view of the fair city of Constantinople, with its castellated walls, marble palaces, and domes, rising picturesquely on the horizon. No more enchanting prospect could have been desired than that which met the Lady-in-Chief when she reached Scutari, the “silver city,” held in such veneration by the Turks. The town seemed placed in a perfect Garden of Eden, and the lovely blue of the Eastern sky enhanced the beauty of the scene.