Part 10

killed and wounded, and we had not a man who was even grazed. In fact, so truly did we appreciate the importance of the attack, that we did not even turn the troops out, except to man the batteries and support one of the gates. Luckily for us we were under the orders for that night of the second in command, Brigadier Corfield, of the Indian Army, as nice a fellow and as good a soldier as I ever wish to serve under. When I say luckily, I mean that instead of matters being conducted with that fuss, fidget, and alarm which undoubtedly would have been the case, and the men kept under arms all night, the whole affair was treated with the indifference and contempt that it deserved. I have now come upon a topic which I have been desirous to avoid since last December.... I am so averse to saying anything about people in authority whom one serves with, that it is only in consequence of a remark in your last letter and another in a preceding one, together with the repeatedly expressed wish of my mother to know the truth of certain rumours which you say are afloat, that for fear you should think I have anything I do not wish to confide in you, I will tell you how affairs have been conducted here since Ashburnham left. It is impossible for duty to have been carried on in a more unpleasant manner, not only