Note 24 — THE EGYPTIAN CAMPAIGN, 1801.

As the soldiers were burying a Highlander of the 42nd. regiment, who was supposed to be dead, Captain David Stewart, of Garth, requested them to take him out of the grave, and carry him to the surgeon; he soon recovered of a swoon, his wound was cured, and he resumed his duty shortly afterwards. It is to be hoped that this soldier did not evince his gratitude like the private of the 31st. regiment, mentioned in the following anecdote:—In 1799, the 31st. regiment was serving in Holland, and at Egmont-op-Zee crossed bayonets with the French regiment bearing the same number; a ball fired during the retreat of the latter, passed through the jaws of a soldier of the former, named Robert Hullock; in the course of the afternoon he was buried in the sand-hill where he had fallen, by a soldier of his regiment named John Carnes. During the night Hullock having been but lightly covered with sand, crept out and crawled to a picket of his corps posted near. He was sent to hospital, recovered, and was serving with his regiment in Malta, in 1809. His face having been much disfigured, and his voice scarcely intelligible, (a part of his tongue and palate having been carried away,) he had for some years served as pioneer to his company; a soldier of it died, and Hullock, as a part of his duty, dug the grave, in which he was found, on the arrival of the body for interment, still at work, though then nearly ten feet deep. On being drawn out he was asked for his reason in making it so unusually deep, he replied, “Why, Sir, it’s for poor John Carnes, who buried me, and I think, Sir, if I get him that deep, it will puzzle him to creep out as I did.” On the burial service being read, he proceeded to fill up the grave, and actually buried the man who ten years previously had buried him. Hullock was discharged and pensioned in 1814.