ANECDOTE OF AN ELEPHANT. 59 



Finding that his old friend, or rather enemy, was at that 

 time in the cantonment, he paid him a visit, and was ap- 

 proaching him with all the familiarity of an old acquaintance, 

 when the elephant, usually so mild and tractable, with a 

 terrific glance from his sunken eye, seized the unfortunate 

 man with his trunk, and throwing him violently on the 

 ground, stamped upon him with his colossal feet, reducing 

 what had a few seconds before borne the semblance of a 

 human being into a shapeless mass of blood and dust. This 

 story was related to me by an eye-witness a very short time 

 after it happened, and I saw the beast as quiet and amiable 

 as ever a short time afterwards. 



We were in expectation of a visit from the late Sir T. C. 

 Metcalfe, on his way from Hydrabad, in the Deccan, at 

 which place he was then resident, to Aurungabad and Bombay, 

 and were determined to receive him with every display of 

 hospitality in our power. No man in India was more 

 deservedly admired and respected by all classes than that 

 eminent statesman, then in the zenith, or rather commence- 

 ment of his fame. 



Although at that period there were not more than half-a- 

 dozen ladies in the cantonment, and they could not all 

 strictly figure as " belles," in the true sense of the word, yet 

 a ball was arranged to take place j and private theatricals, 

 in which I took an active part, were in actual contemplation, 

 as a precursor to it. 



Our mess-house was to be the theatre and ball-room, and 

 we were soon actively engaged in scene-painting, costume- 

 making, and all the different theatrical preparations neces- 

 sary to the performing of that very difficult and complicated 

 drama, She Stoops to Conquer; or, The Mistakes of a 

 Night. Having volunteered to write a sort of opening 

 address or prologue, and to take two roles in the comedy, I 

 had full occupation for the several days that intervened. 



