382 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, effect like what, in old times at Whitehall, men ^^- used to expect from the magic of ' going to Mr ' Pitt.'(33) In the hearts of thousands and thousands of our people there was a yearning to be able to share the toil, the distress, the danger of battling for our sick and wounded troops against the sea of miseries that encompassed them on their hos- pital pallets : and men still remember how graci- ously, hov simply, how naturally, if so one may speak, the Ambassadress Lady Stratford de Red- cliffe and her beauteous guest (^^) gave their energies and their time to the work ; still re- member the generous exertions of Mr Sidney Osborne and Mr Joscelyne Percy ; still remem- ber, too, how Mr Stafford — I would rather call him ' Stafford O'Brien ' — the clierished, yet un- spoilt favourite of English society, devoted him- self heart and soul to the task of helping and comforting our prostrate soldiery in the most frightful depths of their misery. Many found themselves embarrassed when trying to choose the best direction they could for their generous impulses ; and not, I think, the least praiseworthy of all the self-sacrificing enterprises which imagination devised was that of the enthusiastic young fellow who, abimdoning his life of ease, pleasure, and luxury, went out, as he probably phrased it, to ' fag ' for the Lady- in-Chief Whether fetching and carrying for her, or writing for her letters or orders,- or orally conveying her wishes to ])ublio servants or others, he, for months and months, faithfully toiled, obey-
