I hope whoever is acting as guide can see better in the
darkness than I can; else we are safe to lose our way, and may find
ourselves anywhere, in the morning.

"Confound it!" The exclamation was elicited by the speaker
stumbling over a boulder, and nearly going on to his head.

"Silence in the ranks, there!" an officer said, close by.

Each regiment was followed by its ammunition mules, and hospital
doolies--the latter being covered stretchers, or palkies, carried
by natives. Besides these were dandies--or chairs--slung upon
mules. This greatly added to the difficulty of a night march for,
even in the daytime, the presence of baggage animals in a column,
upon a narrow road, greatly hinders the troops and, at night, the
delays occasioned by them are naturally very much greater.

For the first three and a half miles the column marched away from
the enemy upon the Khotal, and the surprise of the soldiers
increased at every step they took. At the end of that time they
arrived at the village of Peiwar. Here they turned to the left and,
after crossing several ravines, and stony water courses, arrived on
a cultivated terrace; and kept along this till they reached a very
stiff nullah, twenty feet deep.

The night was bitterly cold, the bank of the nullah was extremely
slippery, and the boulders in the water course below coated with
ice. The difficulty of getting the loaded animals across, in the
darkness, was therefore very great. The passage of the various
water courses caused great delays; and it was difficult to keep the
column together, in the dark. At each passage, the rear was
immensely delayed while the leading troops were passing; and these
again had to be halted, while those behind them struggled over the
difficulties. The men suffered much from cold, as the pace was so
slow that they could not warm themselves; and the mounted officers
specially suffered, in their hands and feet.

At midnight the ravine leading up to the Spingawi Pass was reached;
but so dark was it that the 2nd Punjaubees, separated by a few
yards from the regiment in front of them, marched straight on
instead of turning up it; and the 22nd Pioneers, and the four
artillery guns carried on elephants--being behind them--naturally
went astray, also. Brigadier General Thelwall, who commanded the
column, was at the head of his brigade; and was, for some time,
unaware of the absence of two of his regiments but, after halting
and finding that they d