eferred to a funeral, told his
master that the English for _tazia_ was _coffin_; so it went the round
of the English papers that among the plunder of Lucknow a certain
company of the Ninety-Third had found a gold coffin, and that they had
generously presented the senior lieutenant with the lid of it, which was
studded with diamonds and other precious stones. So far as I am aware,
this is the first time that the true explanation of Jamie Blank's golden
coffin-lid has been given to the world.

As already mentioned, with the exception of the company which captured
the golden _tazia_ and the Mohurrum paraphernalia, the Ninety-Third got
very little loot; and by the time we returned to the city order was in
some measure restored, prize-agents appointed, and guards placed at the
different thoroughfares to intercept camp-followers and other plunderers
on their way back to camp, who were thus made to disgorge their
plunder, nominally for the public good or the benefit of the army. But
it was shrewdly suspected by the troops that certain small caskets in
battered cases, which contained the redemption of mortgaged estates in
Scotland, England, and Ireland, and snug fishing and shooting-boxes in
every game-haunted and salmon-frequented angle of the world, found their
way inside the uniform-cases of even the prize-agents. I could myself
name one deeply-encumbered estate which was cleared of mortgage to the
tune of L180,000 within two years of the plunder of Lucknow. But to what
good? I only wish I had to go through a similar campaign with the
experience I have now. But that is all very fine thirty-five years
after! "There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the
flood"--my readers know the rest. I missed the flood, and the tide is
not likely to turn my way again. Before we left Lucknow the plunder
accumulated by the prize-agents was estimated at over L600,000
(according to _The Times_ of 31st of May, 1858), and within a week it
had reached a million and a quarter sterling. What became of it all?
Each private soldier who served throughout the relief and capture of
Lucknow got prize-money to the value of Rs. 17.8; but the thirty _lakhs_
of treasure which were found in the well at Bithoor, leaving the plunder
of the Nana Sahib's palace out of the calculation, much more than
covered that amount. Yet I could myself name over a dozen men who served
throughout every engagement, two of whom gained the Victoria Cross, who
have died