e with troops on service, some just appreciation
of the compensations of war. The healthy, open-air life, the vivid
incidents, the excitement, not only of realisation, but of anticipation,
the generous and cheery friendships, the chances of distinction which
are open to all, invest life with keener interests and rarer pleasures.
The uncertainty and importance of the present, reduce the past and
future to comparative insignificance, and clear the mind of minor
worries. And when all is over, memories remain, which few men do not
hold precious. As to the hardships, these though severe may be endured.
Ascetics and recluses have in their endeavours to look beyond the grave
suffered worse things. Nor will the soldier in the pursuit of fame and
the enjoyment of the pleasures of war, be exposed to greater discomforts
than Diogenes in his tub, or the Trappists in their monastery. Besides
all this, his chances of learning about the next world are infinitely
greater. And yet, when all has been said, we are confronted with a
mournful but stubborn fact. In this contrary life, so prosaic is the
mind of man, so material his soul, so poor his spirit, that there is no
one who has been six months on active duty who is not delighted to get
safe home again, to the comfortable monotonies of peace.

CHAPTER XV: THE WORK OF THE CAVALRY

The negotiations of the Mamunds had this time opened under more
propitious circumstances. The tribesmen were convinced by the arrival of
the large reinforcements that the Government were in earnest. The return
of "the big general," as they called Sir Bindon Blood, to distinguish
him from the brigadiers, impressed them with the fact that the
operations would be at once renewed, if they continued recalcitrant.
They had still a few villages unburned, and these they were anxious to
save. Besides, they disliked the look of the long topes, or field guns,
of whose powers they were uncertain. They therefore displayed a much
more humble spirit.

On the other hand, every one in the force had realised that there were
"more kicks than ha'pence" to be got out of the Mamund Valley. All the
villages in the plain had been destroyed. Only a few of those in the
hollows of the hills remained. To these the enemy had retired. In
Arrian's History of Alexander's Conquests we read the following passage:
"The men in Bazira [Bazira is the same as Bajaur], despairing of their
own affairs, abandoned the city... and fled to th