I never liked Bathurst, but I
expect it was because he was a better fellow than most of us--that
was at school, you know--and of course I did not take to him
at Deennugghur. No one could have taken to a man there who could
not stand fire. But you say he has got over that, so that is all
right. Anyhow, I have no doubt he will make her happy. Tell her I
am glad, Doctor. I thought at one time--but that is no odds now.
I am glad you are out of it, too.'
"And then he rambled on about shooting Sepoys, and did not say
anything more coherently until late that night. I was sitting by
him; he had been unconscious for some time, and he opened his eyes
suddenly and said, 'Tell them both I am glad,' and those were the
last words he spoke."
"He was a brave soldier, a fine fellow in many ways," Bathurst
said; "if he had been brought up differently he would, with all
his gifts, have been a grand fellow, but I fancy he never got any
home training. Well, I am glad he didn't die as we supposed, without
a friend beside him, on his way to Lucknow, and that he fell after
doing his duty to the women and children there."
Wilson refused to go home after the loss of his arm, and as soon as
he recovered was appointed to one of the Sikh regiments, and took
part in the final conquest of Lucknow two months after the fight
at Cawnpore. A fortnight after the conclusion of that terrible
struggle Sir Colin Campbell announced to Bathurst that amongst
the dispatches that he had received from home that morning was a
Gazette, in which his name appeared among those to whom the Victoria
Cross had been granted.
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