making for the imperial city,
plundering and ravaging on the route, this duty was cheerfully
undertaken. But as time went by, and week succeeded week, without a
shot being fired to relieve the monotony of our lives, the work became
irksome in the extreme.

The regiment therefore fell into a regular groove of guard and picket
duty. We longed to have a fight with the enemy, and still were doomed to
remain in a state of masterly inactivity. At the fort the work was most
trying, and resolved itself into a course of manual labour. There it was
ordered that under the ammunition sheds deep pits were to be dug in the
ground. This duty was performed entirely by the English soldiers, and
continued for a fortnight in the hottest season of the year. In the
receptacles thus formed all the barrels of powder, as well as the small
arms, ammunition, etc., were packed and stowed away, the whole being
covered with earth to the depth of several feet. This was a very needful
expedient, for a stray spark might have blown up the vast stores of
munitions of war, without which it would have been impossible to carry
on future operations against the enemy. No fires for any purpose were
permitted in the fort, and, greatest deprivation of all, the men were
not allowed to smoke during the twenty-four hours they were on guard.

Three or four days after the outbreak, and when everything seemed quiet
in and around the cantonment, two officers and myself, taking with us
some native labourers carrying spades and shovels, proceeded, under
orders from our Colonel, to search for the silver plate buried under
the ruins of our mess-house. We found the brick walls standing; but all
inside the building was one mass of ashes and still-smouldering embers.

We knew the locality of the plate chest, and, setting the coolies to
work, after infinite labour, which lasted some hours, we succeeded in
removing a vast heap of cinders, and found portions of the silver. A
little lower down we came on more; and here were seen spoons melted
almost out of shape by fire. The large silver dishes, plates and
cups--many of the latter of priceless value, for they had been acquired
by the regiment during the Peninsular War--were lying one on top of the
other just as they had been placed in the chest, but all ruined and
disfigured, half melted and blackened from the intense heat.

Close by, where they had fallen off a table, were the four massive
silver candelabra, the gift of dist