Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/165

158 sent to Scutari to attend promiscuously upon Roman Catholics and Protestants. I know enough of Popery to dread its artifices. I pray God to prevent them from turning away, to other mediators, any dying eyes from a dying Saviour.

"In the trenches, the other day, one of our men amused us much. At the first shell which passed close to him, he dropped down on his back, screaming aloud for a doctor, for he was 'kilt entirely.' The doctor ran up to him, and asked where he had been hit, when he exclaimed, 'Och, och, doctor! clane through the blanket!!'

"I have the tent to myself to-night, Brinkley being on duty in the trenches. It is curious what delightful dreams I have every time I fall asleep: now I am at Terling, surrounded by all your beloved faces; then again at Beckenham, with those I love so dearly; at another time I am going to read to old Sophy; again, sitting by the blazing fire in the drawing-room, telling tales of the war to dear John; and awake to find my teeth chattering in my head, a sharp stone sticking into my side, the wind howling in gusts and squalls, and a concert of cannon and small shot, with variations from English, French, Turkish, and Russian performers, instead of a chant in the hall.

"It is stated that 20,000 French have landed at Eupatoria, and, as a set off to this, that 30,000 more Russians have entered the Crimea; but whatever their numbers may be, with God's help, we are sure to beat them. They surprised us at Inkermann, but yet we repulsed them with great slaughter; the British bayonet settled the business; they fight well though; in that battle it was a regular hand-to-hand encounter. A sergeant of the Scots Fusilier Guards told me that he saw a Guardsman and a Russian both dead, with each other's bayonets transfixed in their bodies. Campbell, a young officer of the 30th,