Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/221

Rh it was in his society I felt the happiest; as regards the regiment, he cannot be replaced. Contemplating his melancholy loss in the light of a Christian, we indeed ought not to sorrow as those who have no hope, for I feel sure no officer in the whole army was more prepared to meet his Saviour. I write to your Lordship, as he told one of the officers that his mother was staying with you; and gave your direction in case (as he said) of any thing happening to him.

"Much do I thank you for your very kind letter of the 23d of February. The information it contained concerning a Day of Humiliation having been determined upon, was most acceptable; and itself tended not a little; to cheer our spirits, of late, by many circumstances, much cast down.

"That kind letter deserved a far different; answer from that which I am now called upon to send. Sad, sad, indeed, are the tidings I have to communicate. But I know that, painful and severe as the blow must prove, it is much better that the worst should be told, in a direct and certain form, by letter, than to have your feelings tortured unnecessarily by the uncertain reports which could not fail to reach you through the newspapers. On this account, I feel sure you will forgive me for taking upon myself to break to you — one of his dearest and most valued friends — the melancholy news of the death of our dear companion in arms, and brother in the Lord, Captain Vicars, 97th.

"Yes, our good and gracious God has seen fit, at this His own good time, to take unto himself the soul of our beloved friend. Yet, if we find in these words much to cause deep affliction, surely they contain much of comfort also. Our loss and sorrow are great; but his gain and bliss are greater. Dear Vicars is the second of our little