rge building and garden near the Mint.
Shortly after our arrival an order came for a non-commissioned officer
and a guard of selected men to take charge of a house with a harem, or
_zenana_, of about eighty women who had been rescued from different
harems about the Kaiserbagh,--begums of rank and of no rank, dancing
girls and household female slaves, some young and others of very
doubtful age. Mr. MacBean, our adjutant, selected me for the duty, first
because he said he knew I would not get drunk and thus overlook my
sense of responsibility; and, secondly, because by that time I had
picked up a considerable knowledge of colloquial Hindoostanee, and was
thus able to understand natives who could not speak English, and to make
myself understood by them. I got about a dozen old soldiers with me,
several of whom had been named for the duty by Sir Colin Campbell
himself, mostly married men of about twenty years' service. Owing to the
vicissitudes of my chequered life I have lost my pocket roll-book, and
do not now recollect the whole of the names of the men who formed this
guard. However, John Ellis, whose wife had acted as laundress for Sir
Colin in the Crimea, was one of them, and James Strachan, who was
nicknamed "the Bishop," was another; John M'Donald, the fourth of the
name in my company, was a third; I cannot now name more of them. If any
of that guard are alive now, they must be from threescore and ten to
fourscore years of age, because they were then all old men, tried and
true, and, as our adjutant said, Sir Colin had told him that no other
corps except the Ninety-Third could be trusted to supply a guard for
such a duty. MacBean, along with a staff or civil officer, accompanied
the guard to the house, and was very particular in impressing on my
attention the fact that the guard was on no pretence whatever to attempt
to hold any communication with the begums, except through a shrivelled,
parchment-faced, wicked-looking old woman (as I supposed), who, the
staff-officer told me, could speak English, and who had been directed
to report any shortcomings of the guard, should we not behave ourselves
circumspectly. But I must say I had little to fear on that head, for I
knew every one of my men could be trusted to be proof against the
temptation of begums, gold, or grog, and as for myself, I was then a
young non-commissioned officer with a very keen sense of my
responsibility.

Shortly after we were installed in our positio