th the troops at Cabul. In 1882 he accompanied the Army to
Egypt, and was with the Highland Brigade, which was the most severely
engaged at Tel-el-Kebir. He received the medal and clasp, Khedive's star
and the 3rd class of the Medjidie. After the campaign he went home for
two years, and in 1885 made another voyage to the East, over which the
Russian war-cloud was then hanging. Since then the general has served in
India, at first with the Sappers and Miners, with whose reorganisation
he was closely associated, and latterly in command of the Agra District.
In 1895 he was appointed Chief of the Staff to Sir Robert Low in the
Chitral Expedition, and was present at all the actions, including the
storming of the Malakand Pass. For his services he received a degree of
knighthood of the Military Order of the Bath and the Chitral medal and
clasp. He was now marked as a man for high command on the frontier at
the first opportunity. That opportunity the great rising of 1897 has
presented.

Thirty-seven years of soldering, of war in many lands, of sport of every
kind, have steeled alike muscle and nerve. Sir Bindon Blood, himself,
till warned by the march of time, a keen polo player, is one of those
few officers of high rank in the army, who recognise the advantages to
soldiers of that splendid game. He has pursued all kinds of wild animals
in varied jungles, has killed many pig with the spear and shot every
species of Indian game, including thirty tigers to his own rifle.

It would not be fitting for me, a subaltern of horse, to offer any
criticism, though eulogistic, on the commander under whom I have had the
honour to serve in the field. I shall content myself with saying, that
the general is one of that type of soldiers and administrators, which
the responsibilities and dangers of an Empire produce, a type, which has
not been, perhaps, possessed by any nation except the British, since the
days when the Senate and the Roman people sent their proconsuls to all
parts of the world.

Sir Bindon Blood was at Agra, when, on the evening of the 28th of July,
he received the telegram from the Adjutant-General in India, appointing
him to the command of the Malakand Field Force, and instructing him to
proceed at once to assume it. He started immediately, and on the
31st formally took command at Nowshera. At Mardan he halted to make
arrangements for the onward march of the troops. Here, at 3 A.M. on the
1st of August, he received a telegr