journey, extremely irritated by
her obstinate pride, I raised my hand against her. One look from her
brought me to my senses before the punishment followed. Afterwards, when
my blood had long cooled, she said to me, her eyes still blazing with
anger, 'If you had really struck me I should have left you at once, and
no entreaties would ever have induced me to return to you.' I laughed
at her words, but from that time exercised more control over myself.
We lived in perfect harmony till the day when Georgi saved your life in
Lahore, my valued comrade. It was she who brought me the terrible news
that you were being led away to death. I had never seen the girl
so fearfully excited before. Her eyes glistened and her whole frame
trembled. It seemed as if she would have driven me forward with the
lash, that I might not be too late. I myself was too anxious to worry
my head much about the girl's singular excitement. But after you were
happily saved, when you were concealed in my tent, and I looked for
Georgi to tell her of the result of my intervention, she fell into such
a paroxysm of joy that my jealous suspicions were aroused. Carried away
by excitement I flung an insult at her, and then, when she answered me
defiantly--to her misfortune and mine I had my riding-whip in my hand--I
committed a hateful act, which I would rather have recalled than any of
my other numerous follies. She received the blow in silence. The next
moment she had disappeared, and I waited in vain for her return. Till we
left Simla I had her searched for everywhere, but no trace of her
could be found. I myself then gave her up for lost. After our return
to Lahore, when we were marching on to Delhi, I occasionally heard of a
girl wearing Indian dress who had appeared in the neighbourhood of our
troop and resembled my lost page Georgi. But as soon as I made inquiries
after this girl it seemed as if the earth had swallowed her up, and
under the rapidly changing impressions of the war her image gradually
faded from my mind.

"During a reconnaissance near Lucknow, which I had undertaken with my
regimental staff and a small escort, my own carelessness led us into
an ambuscade set by the English, which cost most of my companions their
lives. At the beginning of the encounter a shot in the back had unhorsed
me. I was taken for dead, and those few of my companions who were able
to save themselves by flight had no time to take the fallen with them.
After lying for a