324 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. chap. Morris had addressed a letter to his young wife,
- Nolan had addressed one to his mother. Under
the belief that the opportunity for hazardous ser- vice of the kind they were seeking might be close at hand, the two friends had exchanged their re- spective letters : and now, when they lay side by side, the one dead and the other unconscious, each of them still had in his pocket the letter en- trusted to him by the other.* When Morris recovered his consciousness he found himself in an English hospital tent.-f" Ter- ribly as he had been wounded and shattered, he did not succumb.}
- The letter found in the pocket of Nolan — i.e., the one
addressed to Mrs Morris by her husband — was sent through the usual channels ; but it is presumed that counteracting intelli- gence was sent to her by the same post. + 1 believe that the satisfaction of having taken the requisite steps for bringing in the shattered frame of his commanding officer is justly enjoyed by Sergeant O'Hnra, the same officer whom we saw exerting himself at the battery captured by the first line. He had been informed by Private John Smith of the spot where Morris lay. X Up to the commencement of the campaign Morris had been keeping himself in an almost constant state of high ' training ;' and, by some, the possession of the bodily force that was needed for enabling him to go through what he did has been attributed in part to that cause, though the indomitable courage and determination of the man were probably his chief resource. Morris was able the following year to take part again in war service, and did not die till the July of 1858. The suppression of the Bengal mutinies had been the task which, in 1857, drew liini and his regiment to the East ; and it was to the climate of India that at length he surrendered his life. He was much thought of in our army as a valorous and skilled cavalry officer, and with so high a reputation for straightforwardness and ac- curacy, that once, when a general officer imprudently ventured to put himself in conflict with Morris upon a matter of fact.
