wherever we chance upon a station
of civil servants. I narrowly escaped being caught by a
troop of the 9th Lancers, every man of whom knows me. I
went over with six trusty fellows, to Astraghan, where I
learned that a certain Loyd was stationed as Government
receiver. We got there by night, burned his bungalow, shot
him, and then discovered he was not our man, but another
Loyd. Bradshaw came up with his troop. He gave us an
eight mile chase across country, and, knowing how the Ninth
ride, I took them over some sharp nullahs, and the croppers
they got you'll scarcely see mentioned in the government
despatches. I fired three barrels of my Yankee six-
shooter at Brad, and I heard the old beggar offer a thousand
rupees for my head. When he found he could not overtake
us, and sounded a halt, I screamed out, 'Threes about,
Bradshaw, I'd give fifty pounds to hear him tell the
story at mess: 'Yes, Sir, begad, Sir, in as good English,
Sir, as yours or mine, Sir; a fellow who had served the
Queen, I'll swear.'

"For the moment, it is a mere mutiny, but it will soon be a
rebellion, and I don't conceal from myself the danger of
what I am doing, as you, in all likelihood, will suspect.
Not dangers from the Queen's fellows--for they shall never
take me alive--but the dangers I run from my present
associates, and who, of course, only half trust me.... Do
you remember old Commissary-General Yates--J.C.V.R. Yates,
the old ass used to write himself? Well, amongst the other
events of the time, was the sack and 'loo' of his house at
Cawnpore, and the capture of ais pretty wife, whom they
brought in here a prisoner. I expected to find the poor
young creature terrified almost out of her reason. Not a bit
of it! She was very angry with the fellows who robbed her,
and rated, them roundly in choice Hindostanee, telling one
of the chiefs that his grandfather was a scorched pig. Like
a woman, and a clever woman, too, though she recognised me--
I can almost swear that she did--she never showed it, and we
talked away all the evening,-and smoked our hookahs together
in Oriental guise. I gave her a pass next morning to
Calcutta, and saw her safe to the great trunk road, giving
her bearers as far as Behdarah. She expressed herself as