3497. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 24–26.
[Florence]
[Postmark: 2 December 1854]
My dearest Sarianna Penini’s letter fills up so much room that Robert & I must squeeze up against the wall. He has had a rash (like the nettle-rash) which lasted for three days, about a fortnight ago—and I am hoping (against hope) it was the measles. The measles are very slight here .. not at all like the same complaint in the north. Still, how, without headache & fever, it could pass so, I can scarcely think. I wish now we had had a medical man to see him & set the question at rest, but he was so very well it seemed absurd at the time to send for Dr Harding. As a matter of prudence we kept him in his room for those three days. Now of course he is as well as possible. Witness the letter. He said yesterday .. hearing of the war .. that the Russians were “really too naughty,” & that he “should send somebody to help the English & French.” “Ferdinando,” I suggested. “No, not Ferdinando. Somebody I dont mind being killed. I sint .. (after a pause of consideration) I will send Mr Miller”– (The English baker, here.) You see Penini agrees with you as to sending away, to fight our battles, people we dont care too much for personally—& I certainly agree with you both so far as wishing & praying that Surtees Cook may not be sent. It would be horrible for my poor Henrietta & her little children to be even sent to our colonies, in the place of the regular troops.
But I dont agree with you, Sarianna, that the English are “made to bear the brunt” &c &c. Oh, because our allies are generous & praise us as we deserve, are we to turn it against them? Robert & I hear all sorts of observations,—read letters written from Sebastopol by officers to their friends at Florence,—& there is nothing but admiration of & confidence in their allies. The plan of the battle of Alma was that the English should “turn the wing” as the French did precisely .. but they lingered too long & had to face instead .. which exposed them more. [1] At Inkerman the Russians attacked them. [2] Whose fault was that, but the enemy’s who preferred to charge the weaker side, numerically.? Bosquet [3] came up as soon as it was possible—& the results of that day’s battle (though we had to sustain the whole till the arrival of our allies) showed only seven hundred men ‘hors de combat’ more than the French loss. There has been great heroism on both sides, & most noble emulation. At the same time the carnage is depressing to think of– Without reinforcements nothing final can be done, & we hear the French & English governments much blamed, for not having sent in the first place, sufficient numbers. Against a hundred thousand men what can fifteen thousand do, which the allies are in all.? [4]
It’s too true that there is great gloom in England– You are to understand that it arises not simply from the war however but from the losses by cholera. People come to Florence from London who tell of being stopped in the streets by policemen carrying black flags & warning them against certain districts devastated by the pestilence. The churches, at the thanksgiving for the harvest before the Sebastopol days, were filled with crowds in mourning, whose prayers were broken by sobs. Oh, the cholera was frightful in London this last autumn. [5]
Dearest Sarianna, I send you a letter full of plague & saltpetre for which you wont thank me. I think I am thrown naturally into such talk through being very sadhearted indeed just now– I see all black. Within a few days I have heard of dearest Trippy’s illness, & though Arabel “thinks she will recover” & Robert insists on it she will (to keep me up perhaps) I dwell on her great age & feel much cast down– It has been an inflammatory rheumatic attack, followed by an alarming sinking. Arabel is with her day & night.
Robert calls vehemently–
Your ever attached Ba–
Address, in RB’s hand: France. / Mademoiselle Browning, / chez M. Byrne, / Avenue des Champs-Elysées, 138. / Paris.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
2. On the morning of 5 November 1854, Russian forces under the command of Prince Menshikov launched a three-pronged attack against British positions on and around a group of hills and ridges near the village of Inkerman, just to the east of Sebastopol. Against superior numbers the British, with the crucial help of the French, were able to hold their ground, and the Russians withdrew. The allies suffered about 3,300 casualties, the majority of which were British.
3. Pierre François Joseph Bosquet (1810–61), one of the French generals in command in the Crimean War, directed the timely intervention of his forces at the battle of Inkerman.
4. According to The Times of 23 November 1854, the number of allied troops put into the field at Inkerman was “8,000 of the English and 6,000 of the French” (p. 6). Total allied forces as of the issue of 27 November were believed to be about 30,000 French and 15,000 British. Earlier, The Times had estimated the Russian troop strength at 80,000, with another 20,000 soon expected (20 November 1854, p. 6).
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