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The Crimean Troops Defiling at the Foot of the Column, Place Vendome, 1856. Wounded French soldiers in Paris. 'The soiled uniforms, but still more the haggard and worn appearance of the men's swarthy faces, told a tale of suffering and endurance which drew tears from many of the spectators; and the intensity and earnestness of the cheering exceeded anything ever before heard in Paris. The flag of one of the regiments...was torn to ribbons; the white maculated with the blood stains...and the eagle which surmounts the shaft showed, by one of its wings shot off, the fierceness of the struggle it had been engaged in. Behind the bands of each regiment marched the wounded...the shouting, clapping of hands, and waving of handkerchiefs which greeted them, brought a smile of proud satisfaction on their poor wan faces which it was impossible to see unmoved'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.