Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/170

Rh which began again yesterday, after three days of fine weather, will fill the hospitals. Two officers and forty poor fellows were sent down to Balaklava yesterday for the recovery of their health. It was pitiable to see them. Few, if any will ever return. I saw them off yesterday morning; some wept as they wished me good bye. They were so delighted to get the tracts and Testaments I had brought with me, that they began reading them aloud as soon as I put them into their hands.

"We have been living like princes lately. I sent my servant the other day to Balaklava to forage for me, and he returned with onions, potatoes, a ham, bread, and (would you believe it?) a case of salt butter! You may imagine what a dinner we had, and with what excitement we opened the tin of butter; but our faces did not look so jolly when our noses proclaimed that it was rancid! However I managed to eat it, nevertheless. I have been praised by the Colonel more than once for the state my company is in, so I am as happy as possible, except for the daily diminishing ranks of my poor regiment.

Dec. 18th. — I am, thank God, quite well — never better, and what is more, clean! You know my weakness for 'cataracts.' Well, I have contrived to get one every day for nearly three weeks; but then I take more pains to get water for myself than most of the fellows. I dined to-day off soaked biscuit fried with lard — a capital dish; boiled ration pork, very good; potatoes middling; with mustard and salt — my wine being weak rum and water. I am sure drinking spirits is a bad plan, and, besides being injurious, makes a man colder than ever an hour afterwards. Each officer and man is allowed a gill of rum daily, but I never drink even the half of mine, often none at all. I went on picquet this morning at half-past four o'clock with fifty men; it rained hard for about an hour, the remainder of the night being fine.