A groan of relief escaped the lips of those about me as we drew near the noble group of buildings, which the women had chosen for their home, and saw that the one that was on fire stood at such a distance from the others that it did not greatly endanger them. The building which was on fire was in fact built for a hospital, and was, therefore, purposely kept aloof from the rest. But though the anxiety lest there should be a general conflagration among the women’s quarters was assuaged, the progress of the flames in the burning building was sufficiently terrifying. Flames had begun to dart intermittently from an upper window, and a huge column of black smoke was heavily drifting into the starlit sky. It is true that women, as a rule, are not cool and clear-headed in the presence of the peril of sudden fire, though it is also true that many men are not more so. This fact it appeared had been clearly recognized by the women, and only the trained women nurses, who were employed in the hospital,--those noiseless, efficient, self-possessed, self-denying creatures, who pass their gentle lives in the dim twilight of sick-rooms,--had been allowed by the women to remain near the building after the fire had been discovered. With quiet celerity these trained nurses had got the greater part of the patients safely out of the building before a man arrived. All was calmness, action, and self-restraining nerve. It was only when in response to the dire summons of the alarm bell, the impetuous wave of men surged up the hill and around the building, that there was anything like mad disorder, and fruitless panic. Not a man stopped for a instant after reaching the burning building, but plunged madly into its interior. The halls became choked with them, they stumbled over each other on the staircases, with demoniac strength they forced all opposing doors from their hinges, wildly groping through the blinding smoke after any woman that might possibly have been left. Every instant brought fresh panting relays of men, who disappeared into the building as swiftly as those who had gone before them. Suddenly, in the midst of the dire and increasing confusion, a tall and slender woman emerged from the smoke at the broad entrance. Great masses of chestnut hair were held back from her pure, impassioned face by some chance fastening caught up at the moment. There was a lofty seriousness and a noble self-possession in her stately bearing that made the desperate men who were pressing toward the entrance pause and draw back as if suddenly confronted by an angelic apparition. She had raised her hands to press them against the breasts of the men who were tumultuously advancing, but there was no need. A sudden hush and calm had fallen on them all at sight of her. But the words that she spoke sounded as strangely as the words of an incongruous dream. “Where are the engines?” she said quietly.