A
beautiful moonlight night, and not very cold till about one o'clock in
the morning; lay on the ground and thought of what was going on at
Brookhill and fancy ball at Torquay; visited my sentries continually;
the men in high spirits, and very much on the alert; nothing
extraordinary occurred.
LETTER V.
Camp Kotree, four miles from Hydrabad,
February 6th, 1839.
MY DEAR FATHER,--I wrote to you a few days ago from Jarruk, informing
you of the melancholy fate of three of my brother officers; but having
received your letter since, dated Nov. 20th, containing the bill for 670
rupees (or 70l.), and informing me of the news of Kate's intended
marriage, I could not let slip an opportunity which has just occurred,
by our having got possession of Curachee, of writing to Kitty, and also,
at the same time, of informing you of what has occurred since. You will
receive this at the same time as you do the other, since it will arrive
at Bombay in time to go by the same overland mail.
I wrote to you on the 31st; and on Sunday, the 3rd of February, we
marched out of Jarruk for this place; we made a two days' march of it,
both very disgusting; horrible, or rather no roads at all; nothing but
dust and sand under our feet, which the wind blew into our eyes every
minute; add to which, small halts every five minutes, on account of the
artillery in our front, who could not get on through the badness of the
way: this perpetual halting is the most wearisome thing possible to a
soldier when once fairly under weigh.
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