92 WHIP AND SPUR. 



was the one comrade whose heart, I was sure, 

 was filled only with unquestioning love for me. 

 Henceforth I must look for support to compan- 

 ions who saw me as I was, who knew my faults 

 and my weaknesses, and whose kind regard was 

 tempered with criticism. The one love that was 

 blind, that took me for better or for worse, had 

 been, in an instant, torn from my life, and I 

 was more sad than I can tell. 



But Duty knows no sentiment. A saddened 

 party, we mounted, to join the main command; 

 and, as we rode on through the rest of that deso- 

 late night, no word passed to tell the gloom that 

 each man felt. 



The petty distinctions of earthly rank were 

 swallowed up in a feeling of true brotherhood, 

 and. Wettstein — promoted now — rode at our 

 head as a worthy leader, showing the way to a 

 faithful performance of all duty, and a kindly 

 and cheerful bearing of all life's burdens ; and, 

 through the long and trying campaigns that fol- 

 lowed, more than one of us was the better sol- 

 dier for the lesson his soldierly life had taught. 



