d, asking all manner of questions. A most respectable-looking young
man, wearing the dress of an officer, came up to me and said, "Were you
not in the action on the hill of Muckwanpore?"

I told him that I had had that honour.

He replied, "So was I; and I fired three shots at you from behind a
tree--are you not wounded?"

I replied, "No."

"Well," said he, "I never missed my man before in my life."

I asked him at what period of the action it was that he aimed at me.

"When you were fighting with Sobah Khissna Rhannah," replied he.

"You were not far from your man, then," said I, "for one of your shots
struck the peak of my cap."

At this he laughed. He afterwards complimented me on my swordmanship,
and said that few could touch the sobah in that exercise. He then asked
to look at one of my men's muskets, and he put himself through the
manual and platoon exercises, giving himself the word of command in
English. I never saw motions more clean or more compactly executed. I
asked him where he learned English, and the English modes of drill. He
replied, "From Browne," who was a deserter from the Company's European
regiment. He added, that a man of the name of Bell, a deserter from the
Company's Foot Artillery, had also taught him his exercise, and Browne
had instructed him in English. The former, he said, had been made
colonel of artillery, and the latter schoolmaster; but they had both
been discharged from the service at the commencement of the war.

At last we moved off, the young stranger shaking me heartily by the
hand, and saying, "I love a brave soldier; and the white men are all
brave." This young man, it appeared, was the adjutant of the corps of
which Khissna Rhannah, who fell under my fortunate sabre, was colonel.

Our first march was tolerably easy, as it lay under a winding hill; and
we reached nearly the top of the pass, and encamped. On the following
morning we dispatched our things very early, to prevent them falling
into the hands of the people, should they attempt to prove
treacherous--which was not at all improbable--after we had descended the
ghauts. When under the base of the hill, the road, which had been before
wide and tolerably good, narrowed off, and we soon found ourselves
sinking down between two enormous hills. The road was scarcely wide
enough, in some places, to admit an elephant, with his load, to pass. On
each side of this terrific hill were huge rocks and stones piled up for
our