Most of the officers took his advice.  Captain Mallett sat down on the parapet, took out a notebook, and wrote in pencil: 

“Dear Sir John: 

“Although it is but four days since I posted you a long letter from Cawnpore that I had written on our way up the river, I think it as well to write a few lines in pencil.  You will not get them unless I go down tomorrow, as I shall of course tear them up if I get through all right.  I am writing now within sight of the Residency.  We had a bit of a fight today, but the rebels did not make any serious stand.  Tomorrow it will be different, for we shall have to fight our way through the town, and there is no doubt that the resistance will be very obstinate.  I have nothing to add to what I wrote to you last.  What I should like you to know is that I thought of you all this evening, and that I send you and Lady Greendale and Bertha my best wishes for your long life and happiness.

“Yours most sincerely,

“Frank Mallett.”

He tore the page from his notebook, put it in an envelope and directed it, then placed it in an inner pocket of his uniform.

“So you are not writing, Marshall,” he said, as he went across to the young ensign who was sitting on the angle of the parapet.

“I have no one particular to write to, Captain Mallett, and the only persons who will feel any severe sorrow if I fall tomorrow are my creditors.”

“We should all be sorry, Marshall, very sorry.  Ever since we sailed from Plymouth your conduct has shown that you have determined to retrieve your previous folly.  The Colonel himself spoke to me about it the other day, and remarked that he had every hope that you would turn out a steady and useful officer.  We have all noticed that beyond the regular allowance of wine you have drunk nothing, and that you did not touch a card throughout the voyage.”

“I have not spent a penny since I went on board at Plymouth,” the lad said.  “I got the paymaster to give me an order on London for the amount of pay due to me the day we got to Cawnpore, and posted it to Morrison; so he has got some fifteen pounds out of the fire.  Of course it is not much, but at any rate it will show him I mean to pay up honestly.”

“Well done, lad.  You are quite right to give up cards, and to cut yourself off liquors beyond the Queen’s allowance; but don’t stint yourself in necessaries.  For instance, fruit is necessary here, and of course when we once get into settled quarters, you must keep a horse of some sort, as everyone else will do so.  How much did you really have from Morrison in cash?”

“Three hundred; for which I gave him bills for four fifty and a lien on my commission.”

“All right, lad, I will write to my solicitor in London, and get him to see Morrison, and ask him to meet you fairly in the matter.  He will know that it will be years before you are likely to be in England again, and that if you are killed he will lose altogether; so under these circumstances I have no doubt that he will be glad enough to make a considerable abatement, perhaps to content himself with the sum that you really had from him.”