Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/157

150 it was amidst scenes like these, and sadder still — on the mud-floor of the hospital-tents, that Hedley Vicars' faith was to have its last trial. Sharing, as he did, in no slight measure, the general toil and privation, with the superadded amount of suffering inseparable from his power of strong sympathy, he was ever fulfilling the apostolic injunction, "Bear ye one another's burdens." His faith was not permitted to waver. Through the long dark night of that winter, its lamp never wanted oil, but burnt with a clear and steady light which cheered, not only those around, but also cast its bright reflection upon praying spirits three thousand miles distant.

From the north of Scotland to the south of England, there were people of God, who gave Him thanks for the cheerful hope, and faith working by love, which breathed through the language of this young soldier's letters.

It has been remarked by a keen observer of human nature, who himself passed through the same ordeal, that in the course of that winter in the Crimea, the individual characteristics of men stood out in more striking colours than could have been seen under other circumstances. The selfish became more tenaciously selfish than before, whilst those who were capable of rising to the heights of self-denial, lived a life of daily heroism.

The reader will be prepared to hear that Hedley Vicars ranked amongst the last. To give only one or two of many instances which have been mentioned by his brother officers, or by the men of his regiment, is all that can be requisite here.

During the severe cold of that winter, the only bed he allowed himself was made of stones and leaves, until a fur rug arrived from England, which he felt was invested with a kind of claim of friendship to be retained for his own use. Everything else which