Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/13



may strike some who take up this volume, as strange that a memoir should be written of one who was so early cut off, in the flower of his age, that he had scarcely begun the fulfilment of his youthful promise; whose name, till its last honourable mention by his Commander-in-Chief, was little known beyond his own family and an extended circle of friends and comrades.

Why, it may be asked, was he chosen out of the many not less brave or less beloved, who as freely offered up their lives for their country, and whose graves are, like his, far distant upon the shore of the stranger? It is thought that a perusal of the following pages will sufficiently answer this question, and that, by God's blessing, these records of his brief career will not have been preserved in vain.

If any have cast the bread of life upon the restless waters of some wanderer's heart, and are still waiting and hoping to find it after many days, let them take comfort as they read how the parental prayer and blessing, which seemed to be disregarded, were