Note 42 — EXTRACTS FROM A DIARY, &c.

When Sergeant Higgins was suddenly carried off by the cholera, a feeling of the deepest commiseration for his wife and children was excited among the officers and privates of the regiment. They immediately entered into a subscription, and when the sorrowing widow was about to leave the Citadel with her four young children, on her journey to Cork, they presented her with a purse containing twenty sovereigns. The poor creature was so overpowered by the conflicting feelings of grief for her loss, and gratitude for such an unexpected act of generosity, that she was unable, without assistance, to get to the waggon in which she was to travel. Some of her late husband’s comrades and their wives accompanied her; and so affecting was the parting scene, that more than one manly cheek was bedewed with tears when the sad farewell was exchanged. How soon was it realized as a last farewell!