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for a day or two, nature will have time to rally, and he'll be as well as ever; else death is certain.' patient was a good soldier, and one of the best shots in my company. I found him quite sensible and glad to see me, but nothing could shake his resolution. The Doctor wants me to drink brandy,' he said; ''tis against my caste, and I won't do it.' Had stimulants been given disguised under some other name than spirits, the man might not have objected, but the Doctor could not stoop to folly such as this. On my earnest warning that death was inevitable unless he took the medicine, the Sepoy replied, 'Sahib, I prefer to die rather than live polluted,' and so he passed away.

CHAPTER X.

THE PERSIAN WAR-THE FIRST OUTBREAK OF MUTINY IN WESTERN INDIA.

IN December, 1856, I left Kutch for Bombay,

with the intention of retiring from a service in which proofs of distinction by the local Government became, under the Procustes' bed application of Horse Guard ideas, disqualification for promotion. Under this system such men as Munro, Malcolm, Outram, Lawrence, and numbers like them, were singled out for supersession, unless they had done three years' regimental duty as lieutenant-colonels, or might have been fortunate enough to escape this lot by a previous brevet. To render the thing more absurd, exceptions were made in favour of men who did no military duty. whatever worthy of the name, such as making roads or barracks, or issuing stores; while a

political officer, take Herbert Edwardes for instance, had he been then a lieutenant-colonel, instead of a simple lieutenant, commanding thousands of irregular troops and fighting pitched battles, in short, performing the highest duties of a general officer, would have been liable to supersession.

Among the Bombay officers I stood next in the line of lieutenant-colonels to Sir James Outram, happily saved, together with my junior Sir Henry Lawrence, from my fate by previous brevet, and I was too high up in the general list to make any regimental service effectual to accelerate promotion. Sir James, on returning from England to command the Persian expedition, found me out in Bombay, and tempted me to accompany him by the offer of a command. The history of this successful campaign has yet to be written. Although very similar to the Abyssinian affair, as regards numbers and the necessity of having its base of operations in Bombay, so that the very hay for our horses was sent from thence, it had no attraction for English eyes or newspapers; no special correspondent enlivened the public with

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pictures coloured as they only can be on the spot and at the time, albeit there was much to interest. By the way, it was lucky for many a good soldier we had to carry the said hay, for being compressed in large bales nearly as hard as bricks it was ingeniously employed as a rampart to all the transports on the side next the enemy as we steamed up the Euphrates exposed to artillery and infantry fire, whereby but few casualties occurred amongst the men, though possibly some broken teeth among the horses. I am afraid to say how many bullets one bale alone was found to contain.

Peace concluded, the force broke up, and the major part returned to Bombay in May 1857, where our first greeting was the news of the terrible rising in the East, and the re-establishment of the Great Mogul on his throne. Lord Elphinstone, then Governor of Bombay, whose self-possession, unselfishness and vigilance, from first to last, cannot be too highly praised, sent off the European portion of our force to the assistance of our brethren in Bengal, for all seemed quiet in the West. But great uneasiness pervaded the public mind;

and from my intimate acquaintance with the native character and state of general feeling, I feared that similar causes might produce similar effects as well in one part of India as in the other; for though our native army was exempt from some of the evils under which that of Bengal suffered, yet too much had been done in the attempt to Anglo-Saxonise the Sepoy; too little attention paid to the idiosyncrasies of the race, and the control of their commanders too greatly weakened to give us any real security, and I wrote in to Government my reasons for fearing the spread of the contagion. As events proved, the quiet was but a calm before the storm which shortly afterwards burst upon us.

During the night of July 31, the very middle of the monsoon, the 27th Native Infantry, stationed at Kolapoor, rose in arms, and detailed parties to attack their officers' bungalows. The native adjutant, a Jew, and a Hindoo Havildar (Serjeant), ran to give warning barely in time to permit the ladies to fly from their houses before the Sepoys came up, and poured volleys into them. Captain

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