field. Some German officers asked for a drink of my water, but considerately accepted my excuse that it was for the wounded. … In the morning I found a country house full of wounded French who had not yet been taken to hospital. I spent the whole morning in applying the few simple lessons I had received in washing wounds and bandaging, and I think the belief that they had a doctor amongst them, which I took care not to disturb, did more good to them than my bandages. It was a pretty little country house; and, as I tore up sheets and curtains for what I wanted, I could not help thinking of the return of the luckless owners, who, however, perhaps came back with an exceedingly grateful feeling that any house at all remained to them." This simple narrative admirably illustrates the leading features of the writer's character,—his self-reliance and his humanity.
To come now to Mr. Herbert's political acts and principles, which should have been reached sooner. He started life, to be sure, as a Tory; but I cannot discover that he had ever the root of the matter really in him. He called himself a Conservative long after he had become more liberal than most Liberals. At Oxford, however, he must have had the reputation of being a sound Conservative; for he was elected president of the Union Debating Society over a Liberal opponent, and in 1865 he stood unsuccessfully for Newport, Isle of Wight, in the "Liberal-Conservative" interest. In 1866 a safe Conservative seat was offered to him; but he had resolved to throw overboard the Irish Church, and with the Irish Church necessarily went the safe seat. More decided steps followed. He went down to Newport, and frankly told his old friends
