| Description | His second box has arrived with carpenters' tools - a great aid for leisure hours. Weather much improved - sickening they should be inventing & using more machinery, & larger mortars "to kill unfortunate fellows to whom we owe no grudge ... Not a night passes now but what some 7 or 8 unfortunate fellows are brought home frightfully mangled with legs & arms blown to pieces by shells." The men tremendously courageous under the circumstances "I am sure that it does not require half as much pluck to fight against an enemy as it does to stand cooly the knives & probing of half a dozen surgeons. I go out tonight on a working party, almost the most dangerous service we have now. The Russians are within fifty yards of us & the quantities of shell that are poured upon the unfortunate party make it a kind of forlorn hope. When I go out I always make up my mind for the worst as the chances are much against one's coming back sound if at all ... No one who does not go through it can have an idea of the dangers & providential escapes that every man has every night & the next day you will see fellows riding races & making picnic parties to the Monastery of St. George as if the life was the jolliest in the world. It is the best thing perhaps that could be. We have got a nic-name now and are known as the Night Division. The Emperor's death [Czar Nicholas I] did not make as much sensation as you would imagine. All we thought & said was that peace looked better than before. As to the Russians they did not care one bit, for we met on neutral ground a day or two afterwards, during a two hours armistice & very great fun we had. It was altogether the most extraordinary scene I ever witnessed. The officers seemed very gentlemanlike men and some spoke English very well & all spoke French. They began to ask us when we meant to take the place & how long we intended to stay in the Crimea, which little pleasantnesses were answered in a proper spirit. There was not the least ill-feeling amongst the men & cigars & snuff were exchanged. I do not think they bear us any ill will at all. The French were furious at our fraternizing so much, they themselves keeping quite aloof & scowling on the Moscos. It showed the difference in the character of the two armies. We met & smoked & talked to each other until the white flag went down & then we shook hands, ran back to our holes & began to fire away again, just as usual." |