n the Dilkoosha park, I
went out with Sergeant Peter Gillespie, our deputy provost-marshal, to
take a look round the bazaars, and just as we turned a corner on our way
back to camp, we met some gentlemen in civilian dress, one of whom
turned out to be Mr. Russell, the _Times'_ correspondent, whom we never
expected to have seen in India. "Save us, sir!" said Peter Gillespie.
"Is that you, Maister Russell? I never did think of meeting you here,
but I am right glad to see you, and so will all our boys be!" After a
short chat and a few inquiries about the regiment, Mr. Russell asked
when we expected to be in Lucknow, to which Peter Gillespie replied:
"Well, I dinna ken, sir, but when Sir Colin likes to give the order,
we'll just advance and take it." I may here mention that Sergeant
Gillespie lived to go through the Mutiny, and the cholera epidemic in
Peshawar in 1862, only to die of hydrophobia from the bite of a pet dog
in Sialkote years after, when he was about to retire on his sergeant's
pension. I mention this because Peter Gillespie was a well-known
character in the old regiment; he had served on the staff of the
provost-marshal throughout the Crimean war, and, so far as I now
remember, Colonel Ewart and Sergeant Gillespie were the only two men in
the regiment who gained the Crimean medal with the four clasps, for
Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman, and Sebastopol.

On the 4th of March the Ninety-Third, a squadron of the Ninth Lancers,
and a battery of artillery, were marched to the banks of the Goomtee
opposite Beebeepore House, to form a guard for the engineers engaged in
throwing a pontoon bridge across the Goomtee. The weather was now very
hot in the day-time, and as we were well beyond the range of the enemy's
guns, we were allowed to undress by companies and bathe in the river. As
far as I can remember, we were two days on this duty. During the
forenoon of the second day the Commander-in-Chief visited us, and the
regiment fell in to receive him, because, he said, he had something of
importance to communicate. When formed up, Sir Colin told us that he had
just received despatches from home, and among them a letter from the
Queen in which the Ninety-Third was specially mentioned. He then pulled
the letter out of his pocket, and read the paragraph alluded to, which
ran as follows, as nearly as I remembered to note it down after it was
read: "The Queen wishes Sir Colin to convey the expression of her great
admiration and gra