246 



HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



But afterwards, when marching among the villages, 

 I arrived at one where I was told that a very aged man 

 resided who had witnessed all these events, and would 

 be able to describe them. I sent for the old man, and, 

 with a good deal of questioning, obtained his story. 

 I am sorry to say that, if correct, it took from mine 

 much of its poetry. The Raja, he said, left Sreenugger 

 as soon as he learnt that the Nepaulese were approach- 

 ing it. When he reached the Doon he summoned all 

 the villagers ; none of them wanted to go, but some 

 did, and he among them. When the Nepaulese ap- 

 peared they ran away. There was some fighting, but 

 very little, and he did not know that the Raja took any 

 part in it ; he went away quite leisurely, and nobody 

 pursued him. But perhaps the old man's account was 

 as much too prosaic as in my fancy the events had been 

 overcoloured. 



The old man's recollections went back well into the 

 last century, but he could tell me very little that was 

 interesting ; his memory was almost entirely occupied 

 with petty events that had occurred in his own and the 

 neighbouring villages. I asked him when he first heard 

 of the English. '' Oh, that was when he was very 

 young ; they were then far away down at Benares." 

 Then I inquired what he had heard about them. The 

 answer was unexpected and amusing. " People said," 

 he replied, " that their horses had no tails, nor their 

 swords any handles." The tailless horses were, of 

 course, the closely docked ones of that day ; and the 

 swords, I imagine, must have been the dress swords 

 then worn, whose handles had no guards. 



