We have been in the thick of the fighting all the time, and I can’t
understand how it happens that I’m alive and here now, and everyone
else is the same. If ever there was a Providence above watching and
guarding, there is one over our regiment, and me in particular. Last
week I was four days and three nights without sleep at all, except an
hour in the saddle or lying on the roadside; but we have been having a
rest this last two days, and we could do with it. You don’t look very
well in your photo; in fact, it made me feel more worried than whole
regiments of Germans would do. You are worrying about me, I am afraid,
and you absolutely must not do that. Why, I’m in the pink of condition;
have just had a chicken for dinner (from a deserted château). Have just
had two packets of Player’s from the Cigarette Fund. I’m just going to
have a sleep, and I wouldn’t call the King my uncle: _A Bandsman of the
Lancers_.