Page:Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912.djvu/85

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" — Here I am, thank God, safe and sound; but, alas! in Quarantine for seven days. I sailed on the afternoon of the 4th, and had a prosperous voyage and most delightful weather. I was in hopes I should have had a cabin to myself, but in this I was disappnointed, having been double up with two cadets of the East India Company's Service. At first I was strongly inclined to avoid the reproach of the Cross, and not to make a mark of myself by kneeling down, or reading my Bible in their presence, before retiring to rest. But God gave me grace to overcome this. Still it shows me what a coward I am, that I should, even for an instant, lie tempted to hide my colours, and ashamed to confess Christ.

"My usual and favourite hour for meditation was after all the rest had turned into their berths, when, with none on deck but the officer of the watch and the steersman, I could walk and think undisturbed. We had fine moonlight nights, and the still grandeur of the heavens brought the Nineteenth Psalm forcibly to my mind.

"The Indus arrived in the Bay of Gibraltar on the evening of the 9th; and I learnt that the England was in quarantine with the Rock owing to the cholera; and that I should have seven days to wait before I could go on land. This detention was truly unfortunate; I am so impatient to get to my poor uncle. But in little things as well as great, we must learn to see the hand of God, and to remember that his infinite wisdom orders all."