"fresh woods and pastures new." 51 



investigation, which ended in the deposition of the 

 Wazi'r, Lai Singh. I was sent both days to bring 

 him and his Court to the tents where the proceed- 

 ings were being carried on ; and when he was 

 deposed, I was commissioned to accompany him to 

 his honourable confinement. I am not a very 

 nervous subject in these matters, but it might 

 have been anything but a joke taking a fallen 

 Sikh ruler to his place of durance unaccompanied 

 by a single man save his own wild fanatic followers. 

 Yet I and two other English ofiicers were allowed 

 to take him away, put him down at his spo7i(jing- 

 house, and ride away without so much as a stone 

 being thrown ! and less than a year ago this very 

 man was one of the leaders of the most formidable 

 armies that ever threatened our power in India." 



"I have still," he writes, "two second lieutenants 

 above me. However, it would be worth while to 

 exchange at a loss into this corps. I am un- 

 commonly proud of it, or at least of what remains 

 of it, for we are hardly more than a skeleton. 

 Lord Gough, in reviewing us the other da}^ said 

 he would rather have the 300 men we had left, 

 to go into action with, than any other regiment 

 a thousand strong ! This, even when taken cum 

 grano, is very gratifying, and is, moreover, an ex- 

 pression of the opinion of the whole service. . . . 

 You know what good spirits I have always had, 

 and that I was not apt to be gloomy, and yet 

 even I find it hard not to be depressed very often. 

 The want of society is very trying to a man who 

 has left England at an age to appreciate its benefits ; 

 and our only society here is in our regiment, and 

 though we are very fortunate in our present set, 



