Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/209

Rh "Nothing new here. Report says the Czar is dead! Can it be true? Sickness is on the decrease, and we are all as lively as kittens!

"March 16th. — Many, many thanks for your dear letter of the 1st. I cannot tell you how much I rejoice in the improved accounts of the Duke of Manchester, for your last had made me very uneasy about him. God grant that he may be long spared to his sweet wife, to England, and to the Church at large.

"We have lately lost several men in the trenches. On Wednesday last, Captam Craigie, of the Engineers, who regularly attended our Sabbath Prayer Meetings, was killed by a shell in the Middle Ravine. I was on picquet there on that night, and he was struck only a few minutes before I came up with my men. Poor fellow! he was quickly called into eternity, for he never spoke a word, but fell instantly after being hit; but I feel sure he was, and is now safe for ever! I liked him very much, and his death has cast a gloom over our small band.

"We were turned out the night before last by a very heavy firing in our front; it lasted for about twenty minutes, when it ceased entirely, but ere long we were alarmed by a second cannonade, and we once more stood to our arms. It was a fine starlight night, and, as I stood gazing in the direction of the fusillade, I thought I had never witnessed a more imposing spectacle. Shells in quick succession were shooting up into the air, with the bright glare of artillery reflected over the brow of the hills in our front, and the lurid flushes of musketry, as volley after volley chimed in, accompanied by the wild cheers of the combatants which we could plainly hear at intervals, even amidst the deafening roar. In less than half an hour ail was quiet, and we returned to our tents. It was an attack made by the French on a Russian advanced work, from which they drove the enemy, but were in their turn driven out. The