e made a desperate stand, but was
eventually driven from his almost inaccessible position by the
determined gallantry of our Indian troops, assisted by a Contingent
from Kashmir. Three Victoria Crosses were given for this business, and
many more were earned, but of necessity there must be a limit to the
disposal of decorations; and in an affair of this kind, in which all
proved themselves heroes, each individual must have felt himself
honoured by the small force being awarded such a large number of the
coveted reward, in proportion to its size.

We reaped the benefit of having taken this district under our own
control when Chitral required to be relieved, and the Hunza-Naga
people afforded Colonel Kelly such valuable help.

On the 1st January, 1892, I received an intimation that Her Majesty
had been graciously pleased to bestow a peerage upon me, and the same
day the Secretary of State for India offered me a further extension
of my appointment as Commander-in-Chief--an offer I would gladly have
accepted, as I knew it had been made with the concurrence of the
Viceroy, if I could have taken even a few months' leave to England.
But during a quarter of a century I had only been able to spend
eighteen months out of India, and I felt the need of change of climate
and a little rest after so many years of continued hard work. Under
the existing regulations a Commander-in-Chief could have no leave.
Lord Cross had tried to remedy this hard rule by bringing in the
'Officers' Leave Bill'; but as he informed Lord Lansdowne it was
impossible to get it through the House of Commons that session, I was
obliged very reluctantly to beg to be allowed to resign my command in
the spring of 1893.

Before returning to Simla for really the last time, my wife and I made
another trip to Burma as far as Mandalay, and after this was over
we paid a most interesting visit to Nepal, having received the very
unusual honour of an invitation to Khatmandu from Maharaja Bir
Shumsher Jung Rana Bahadur.

Khatmandu is about a hundred miles from our frontier station of
Segowli, by a very rough road over a succession of steep, high hills
and along deep, narrow valleys, which would have been quite impossible
for a lady to travel by but for the excellent arrangements made by
the Nepalese officials; the last descent was the worst of all; we
literally dropped from one rock to the next in some places. But on
reaching the base of the mountain all was changed. A