housand horse he broke up his
camp at Palimbang; and the first thing General Lake heard of him was,
that he was at Putna, then at Rumpooge, then at Doncaradam--he was, in
fact, in the very heart of our territory.

"The unfortunate part of the affair was this:--His Excellency, despising
the Mahratta chieftain, had allowed him to advance about two thousand
miles in his front, and knew not in the slightest degree where to lay
hold on him. Was he at Hazarubaug? was he at Bogly Gunge? nobody knew,
and for a considerable period the movements of Lake's cavalry were quite
ambiguous, uncertain, promiscuous, and undetermined.

"Such, briefly, was the state of affairs in October, 1804. At the
beginning of that month I had been wounded (a trifling scratch, cutting
off my left upper eyelid, a bit of my cheek, and my under lip), and I
was obliged to leave Biggs in command of my Irregulars, whilst I retired
for my wounds to an English station at Furruckabad, alias Futtyghur--it
is, as every twopenny postman knows, at the apex of the Dooab. We have
there a cantonment, and thither I went for the mere sake of the surgeon
and the sticking-plaster.

"Furruckabad, then, is divided into two districts or towns: the lower
Cotwal, inhabited by the natives, and the upper (which is fortified
slightly, and has all along been called Futtyghur, meaning in
Hindoostanee 'the-favorite-resort-of-the-white-faced-Feringhees-near
the-mango-tope-consecrated-to Ram') occupied by Europeans. (It is
astonishing, by the way, how comprehensive that language is, and how
much can be conveyed in one or two of the commonest phrases.)

"Biggs, then, and my men were playing all sorts of wondrous pranks with
Lord Lake's army, whilst I was detained an unwilling prisoner of health
at Futtyghur.

"An unwilling prisoner, however, I should not say. The cantonment at
Futtyghur contained that which would have made ANY man a happy slave.
Woman, lovely woman, was there in abundance and variety! The fact is,
that when the campaign commenced in 1803, the ladies of the army all
congregated to this place, where they were left, as it was supposed, in
safety. I might, like Homer, relate the names and qualities of all. I
may at least mention SOME whose memory is still most dear to me. There
was--

"Mrs. Major-General Bulcher, wife of Bulcher of the infantry.

"Miss Bulcher.

"Miss BELINDA BULCHER (whose name I beg the printer to place in large
capitals.)

"Mrs. Colonel Vand