“Yes, I received a very nice little parcel from St Silas’s, but have not had any time at all to acknowledge it, as you can guess by your mail, which always takes precedence with me.... I expect we shall be slackening off out here shortly as ’tis getting very hot again, especially from about 10 A.M. to 4 P.M., when every effort is an effort and one sweats rivers, lying down--in fact, it’s really worse lying down than knocking slowly, one doesn’t seem to notice the heat so much then. We have to make bivouacs with our blankets thrown across swords and twigs stuck in the ground to get a little shelter from the sun, as there is next to no shadow here, and the sun is nearly overhead again. Roll on, we’ve just about got J. Turk beat to the wide now, so it’s about time we had a long rest. Then we are made to clean and polish everything up, and it’s some job that, as all steelwork is eaten in with rust, and everything more or less the same since we came on service. “Well, my candle has just given me the wink and I’m finishing this by moonlight, so cheerio to all of you. Hope you are all in the pink.... Take great care of yourself, mother, love, and all the others as well. Am fit as a fiddle myself when I can get enough to eat.” Private Mortimer was decorated soon afterwards with the Military Medal for bravery in action, and after reading his letter one is not surprised to hear it. The Regiment, it may be observed, though weak in men, and still weaker in horses, was now strong in officers again. Colonel Richardson and others wounded at Lajj had returned, and though one or two more had since been hit, they were doing well. But one, unhappily, had lost his life in a very sad way: Captain Newton, who had commanded a squadron at Lajj, and had afterwards gone through the April fighting, was drowned in the Tigris on the night of the 25th.