After the Tchernaya, as there was no probability of a renewal of the bombardment for a short time, Jack asked leave to spend a few days on board ship, as his services as interpreter were not likely to be required.  This was readily granted.  Here he had perfect rest.  Captain Hethcote did not put him in a watch, and every day, with some of his messmates, he rowed out of the harbor, and coasted along at the foot of the lofty cliffs, sometimes fishing, sometimes taking a bath in the cool waters.  This week’s rest and change did Jack a great deal of good, for he had been feeling the effects of the long strain of excitement.  He had had several slight touches of fever, and the naval doctor had begun to speak of the probability of sending him down to the hospital-ship at Constantinople.  The week’s rest, however, completely set him up, and he was delighted with the receipt of a budget of letters from home, written upon the receipt of his letter announcing his safety.

None but those who have gone through a long and tedious campaign, or who may be living a struggling life in some young colony, can know how great is the delight afforded by letters from home.  For a time the readers forget their surroundings, and all the toil and struggle of their existence, and are again in thought among the dear ones at home.  Retiring to some quiet place apart from their comrades, they read through their letters again and again, and it is not till every little item is got by heart, that the letters are folded up and put away, to be re-read over and over again until the next batch arrive.

Jack, of course, had heard much of his family from his brother, but the long letters of his father and mother, the large, scrawling handwriting of his little brothers and sisters, brought them before him far more vividly than any account could have done.  Enclosed in his father’s letter was one with a Russian postmark, and this Jack found was from Count Preskoff.  It had been written six weeks after he had left them, and had, curiously enough, arrived in England on the very day after his own letter had reached home.  The count wrote expressing their anxiety regarding him, and their earnest hopes that he had effected his escape.  He said that his wife and daughters diligently read every paper they could get from end to end, but having seen no notice of the capture of two young Englishmen in disguise, they entertained strong hopes that their friends had effected their escape.  The count said he was sure that Jack would be glad to hear that things in Russia looked brighter; that it was rumored that the Emperor Alexander intended on the occasion of his coronation to proclaim a general emancipation of the serfs, and that other measures of reform would follow.  The party of progress were strong in the councils of the new monarch.  The decree for his own banishment from court had been cancelled, and he was on the point of starting for St. Petersburg with his wife and daughters.