een engaged. Those times are
changed, and the country has now rushed into the opposite extreme of
fulsome adulation, making a laughing-stock of the army and covering
with glory the conquerors in a ten days' war waged against the wretched
fellaheen soldiers of Egypt.

Five years passed away after 1857 (and how many poor fellows had died in
the meantime!) before a mean and niggardly Government distributed to the
remnant of the Delhi army the first instalment of prize-money, and three
years more elapsed before the second was paid.

In September, 1861, exactly four years after the storm of Delhi, my
regiment paraded at the Plymouth citadel to receive medals for the
campaign of 1857. The distribution took place in the quietest manner
possible, none but the officers and men of the regiment being present.
Borne on a large tray into the midst of a square, the medals were handed
by a sergeant to each one entitled to the long-withheld decoration, the
Adjutant meanwhile reading out the names of the recipients. There was
no fuss or ceremony, but I recollect that those present could not help
contrasting the scene with the grand parade and the presence of the
Queen when some of the Crimean officers and men received the numerous
decorations so lavishly bestowed for that campaign.[1]

The city was entirely in our possession by noon of September 20, and
shortly after that hour I proceeded on horseback, with orders from
the Colonel, to withdraw all the advanced pickets of my regiment
to headquarters at Ahmed Ali Khan's house. These were stationed in
different parts of the city, and it was with no small difficulty that I
threaded my way through the streets and interminable narrow lanes, which
were all blocked up with heaps of broken furniture and rubbish that had
been thrown out of the houses by our troops, and formed in places an
almost impassable barrier. Not a soul was to be seen; all was still
as death, save now and then the sound of a musket-shot in the far-off
quarters of the town.

My duty accomplished, I started in the afternoon with two of our
officers to view a portion of the city. We made our way first in the
direction of the Palace, passing down the Chandni Chauk (Silver Street)
and entering the Great Gate of the former imperial residence of the
Mogul Emperors. Here a guard of the 60th Rifles kept watch and ward with
some of the jovial little Goorkhas of the Kumaon battalion. From the
first we learnt particulars of the eas