The hospitable detachment gave us, notwithstanding the great scarcity of provisions, a more substantial meal than we had seen for a long time, to which we sat down twenty-one in number, at a long deal table, in a bare whitewashed room; but as our kind entertainers had been unexpectedly sent up to the empty fort from the field in "patrol order," it was a much more difficult affair to provide a dinner service than a dinner. At night we lay in our blankets on the floor, side by side, and as we listened to the mountain storm raging without, congratulated ourselves on sleeping under a roof, a luxury we had only once before enjoyed since leaving Cork. We visited Gordon again in the morning before starting for the camp, and assisted the surgeon to dress his wounds and arrange his bed; and sat as long as we possibly could wiping his brow and moistening his lips. On leaving, he begged us to come over as often as we could to see him during his probable long confinement in this lonely place, which we promised to do, but never saw him again. After three days of excruciating agony, the broken limb suddenly mortified, and he was carried off in a few hours; so died this young soldier, alone in a wild mountain fort, thousands of miles away from home and relatives, with only a servant to witness his last moments. Poor Ricketts, whose exquisite songs had so often enlivened our long evenings, died the same day, having been gradually sinking for some time previously. His death, which occurred some hours the first, was purposely kept from Gordon, but the sound of the funeral volleys reached his ear, and in a quiet voice he blamed his servant for not telling him of it; in two hours after, a like salute was fired over his own grave. His loss was sincerely mourned both by officers and men, his honest sterling qualities, kindly heart, and dauntless bravery in the field having endeared him to all. Having commissariat cattle to escort to the camp for the troops, I gave them in charge of the Fingoes, following in rear with the escort. When little more than half-way back to where we had left our camp, we saw the whole Division about two miles off, with its long retinue of waggons, trekking across the open plain, and while wondering what it could mean, a mounted express rode up, with an order from the General for us to continue on the road as far as the top of the Blinkwater Pass, where we halted till the division came up; eager to hear the results of their operations on the previous day.