o had fallen in the assault on
the Redan, as also those who had defended it. The Russians were placed
by themselves, at one end of the ditch, and our men at the other, and
then we shovelled the earth from the slope over them both. There they
lie; the rampart of the fortress the one had fought to defend, the other
to gain, their monument. The most terrible sight, however, was in a
building which we did not enter for two days, I think, on account of the
houses burning round it and the mines exploding. It was a hospital; and
in it were two thousand human bodies, and out of the whole scarcely five
hundred were alive. The rest had died. For forty-eight hours no one
had been near them to give them a drop of water, or dress their aching
wounds. I've often thought what those poor fellows must have gone
through. Then we had to carry them out, and bury them. It was
sickening, terrible work. Those at home little know what a soldier has
to go through. It is not all gold and glitter, let me tell them,
marching here and there on a fine day, with the sun shining, and band
playing, and colours flying.

I am not one of those who would tell a young fellow not to go for a
soldier. Very far from that; but I wish to let him know that he will
have a great deal of hard, trying work to go through, and he will have
to face death in all sorts of ways. Still the man who has a fancy for
soldiering, and is steady, is sure to get on, and will find it a good
profession on the whole.

After we entered Sebastopol, the war was over, but it was some time
before peace was proclaimed. We were heartily glad when that time came;
for we were getting very sick of the place where we had lost so many of
our comrades and friends. We sailed back as we had come, in a number of
large transports; and thankful we were to see the shores of Old England
again.

I went out soon afterwards with our regiment to India. That is a large
country, a long way off, on the other side of the world nearly; the
greater part is very hot, and the natives are of a dark-brown colour.
They are mostly heathens, and worship all sorts of ugly idols of wood
and stone, but some are of the same religion as the Turks, and believe
in the false prophet, Mahomet. The East India Company had a large army
of these men, with English officers, but native non-commissioned
officers. These native officers, with some of their chiefs, thought
that they could take the country from the Engl