stuous night, I was knocked up by the arrival of other
visitors. These were the first regiment of Sardinian Grenadiers, who,
benighted on their way to the position assigned them, remained at
Spring Hill until the morning. We soon turned out our staff, and
lighted up the store, and entertained the officers as well as we could
inside, while the soldiers bivouacked in the yards around. Not a
single thing was stolen or disturbed that night, although they had
many opportunities. We all admired and liked the Sardinians; they were
honest, well-disciplined fellows, and I wish there had been no worse
men or soldiers in the Crimea.

As the season advanced many visitors came to the Crimea from all
parts of the world, and many of them were glad to make Spring Hill
their head-quarters. We should have been better off if some of them
had spared us this compliment. A Captain St. Clair, for instance--who
could doubt any one with such a name?--stayed some time with us, had
the best of everything, and paid us most honourably with one bill upon
his agents, while we cashed another to provide him with money for his
homeward route. He was an accomplished fellow, and I really liked him;
but, unfortunately for us, he was a swindler.

I saw much of another visitor to the camp in the Crimea--an old
acquaintance of mine with whom I had had many a hard bout in past
times--the cholera. There were many cases in the hospital of the Land
Transport Corps opposite, and I prescribed for many others personally.
The raki sold in too many of the stores in Balaclava and Kadikoi was
most pernicious; and although the authorities forbade the sutlers to
sell it, under heavy penalties, it found its way into the camp in
large quantities.

During May, and while preparations were being made for the third great
bombardment of the ill-fated city, summer broke beautifully, and the
weather, chequered occasionally by fitful intervals of cold and rain,
made us all cheerful. You would scarcely have believed that the happy,
good-humoured, and jocular visitors to the British Hotel were the same
men who had a few weeks before ridden gloomily through the muddy road
to its door. It was a period of relaxation, and they all enjoyed it.
Amusement was the order of the day. Races, dog-hunts, cricket-matches,
and dinner-parties were eagerly indulged in, and in all I could be of
use to provide the good cheer which was so essential a part of these
entertainments; and when the warm we