"You are to convey a message from Lord Raglan into Sebastopol."
"To Sebastopol?"
"Yes, to that pleasant city by the sea," said the adjutant.
"To Prince Menschikoff?"
"No," replied the major; "to the officer commanding the nearest post."
"Under a flag of truce?"
"Of course; it would be perilous work otherwise."
"About what is the message?"
"The capture of Major MacG--, of the 93rd, who was carried off by a kind of sortie the other night, and who is supposed to have been afterwards killed in cold blood."
The seizure of the major of the Sutherland Highlanders, a brave old fellow who had on his breast medals for Candahar, Afghanistan, and Maharajapore, had created much interest in the army at this time, when we so readily believed the Russians liable to commit atrocities on wounded and prisoners.