3-008-954 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: "The Two Friends - Sebastopol, 1855", by J. L. H. Bellange, in the French Gallery, 1862. 'Few episodes occur in the bloody drama of war more affecting than that represented here of two young officers who have...fought together, and died together, the one probably for the other...They have been in the very thick of the fight, judging from the ploughed ground, the many cannon-balls and pieces of shells, and the number of dead and wounded lying about...One of the friends was struck first, and the other...flew to his assistance. He...stanched the bleeding breast, seized his hand as if to sustain and infuse new life into the dying man...while, perhaps, mortally wounded himself...the two hands were never unlocked. Death himself was unable to sever the "two friends." And thus they lay till the flags of truce brought the parties...from either side to carry away their dead and wounded. French and Russians converse unconcernedly amidst the carnage...beneath the sacred white flag...But at this sight there is an unwonted pause in the grim work. The staff officer and the surgeon...forget their sad duty of preparing the lists of the hors de combat, as, softened into pity, they peruse the letters taken from the dead'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.