impossible for me to ride through all this; my caique is upset, but I am sticking on the bottom still." Three days later she still despaired. "The fifteen New Nuns are leading me the devil of a life, trying to get in _vi et armis_, and will upset the coach; there is little doubt of that." However, she held her ground. She had started with a Protestant howl at her; she was now prepared to face "a Roman Catholic storm." Happily the Reverend Mother of the first party of nuns was on her side, and strove to compose the canonical difficulty. To another Reverend Mother, who was less peaceably minded, Miss Nightingale often referred in her letters as "the Reverend Brickbat." In any case, Miss Nightingale was resolved, as she wrote, "not to let our little Society become a hot-bed of Roman Catholic Intriguettes." Ultimately it was arranged that five of the second party of nuns should go to the General Hospital, and ten to the newly opened hospital at Koulali. Miss Nightingale suspected some of the second party of a desire to proselytize; and presently she had to inform Mr. Herbert (Feb. 15, 1855) of "a charge of converting and rebaptizing before death, reported to me by the Senior Chaplain, by him to the Commandant, by him to the Commander-in-Chief." She promptly exchanged the suspected nun. The ingenuity of theological rancour was infinite. Having caught wind of the fact that there was some difference of view among the Roman Catholic Sisters, an Evangelical writer sought to fan the flame by denouncing the absurdity of "Catholic Nuns transferring their allegiance from the Pope of Rome to a Protestant Lady." One of the Sisters, on hearing of this diatribe, playfully addressed Miss Nightingale as "Your Holiness," who in turn dubbed the Sister "her Cardinal."[165] I hereby give notice, in case Crimean letters from Miss Nightingale should chance to be printed (such as I have seen) in which she says, "I do so want my Cardinal," that the expression signifies no dark and secret adhesion to any Prince of the Roman Church, but only a desire for the services of a particularly efficient nursing Sister. If a nurse was efficient, Miss Nightingale was on the friendliest terms with her, equally whether the nurse were Catholic or Protestant. Miss Nightingale herself was accused successively, and with equal absurdity in each case, of being prejudiced for, or against, Catholics and Protestants, and of being inimical to religious ministrations altogether.[166] The Protestant charges of proselytizing by Catholic nurses were of course met by counter-charges of attempts by Protestant nurses to convert Roman Catholic patients; and finally a chaplain solemnly appealed to the War Department in London to remove one of Miss Nightingale's staff on the ground that the nurse had been heard to avow herself a Socinian. Miss Nightingale protested successfully against any such disciplinary measure, urging that the lady, whether Socinian or not, was an excellent nurse. Much of all this