"When reconnoitring a village, one of the inhabitants
should be detained and questioned."
The Best Laid Schemes, etc.
That able and efficient officer, Captain Smith, had prepared a really
beautiful ambush that would have put the opposing force out of action
without a doubt, had not this happened just before the psychological moment!
No. 1.
Lt.-Col. Sir DIGBY SANDILANDS, M.P.
Saturday.—Wretched morning. Hunter tells me the barometer is falling again. We really get terribly bad luck with the weather. I know what it will be—we shall get to camp wet through, and find everything absolutely sodden. Wish I had sent Hunter on yesterday to look after things. Lady Sandilands says it's perfectly absurd going on a day like this; suggests that I should go later when everything is straight. Women take the most extraordinary views of one's duty to the country, but really, under the circumstances, I almost wish it were feasible.
Williams has just come up to say that Brown Bess is very lame, shall he get Sultan ready? It is really most annoying: he positively hates the band, while old Bess is as steady as a rock.