Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/49

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THE MAN
47

of working for you. Keep enough work in your hands to employ you, but don't take so much as to burden you.'

Lord Dalhousie did not keep his expressions of affection only for the sick. The whole body of officers immediately under him knew that the imperious 'little man' watched every incident in their lives with an interest which no pressure of public anxieties could slacken. I cannot refrain from quoting one more letter, a little note which, with the heavy burden of the Burmese War upon him. he found time to write to Major Reynell Taylor, when that officer took furlough to England in 1852. 'My dear Taylor, — The power of encouraging and rewarding such men as yourself is one of the few things which make the labour and anxiety of ruling men in some degree bearable. I have seen your progress with great satisfaction. I earnestly hope you may have future opportunities for gaining distinction which you are so fitted to win. Farewell, my dear Taylor. Always yours sincerely, Dalhousie.'

A letter like any of the three preceding became an heirloom in the family of the recipient. It was by such words of noblest sympathy and strong comfort, and genuine warmth of heart, that Lord Dalhousie welded together the ambitions and aspirations of his great lieutenants with his own, and plucked allegiance from the souls of men.