ier required him to rejoin as soon as possible. It was at
Kurnaul (as it was then spelled) that Lola began her experience of
garrison life. Among the other officers she met there was a young
subaltern of the Bengal Artillery, who, in the years to come, was to
make a name for himself as "Lawrence of Lucknow."

The year 1838 was, for both the Company's troops and the Queen's Army,
an eventful one where India was concerned. During the spring Lord
Auckland, the newly-appointed Governor-General, hatched the foolish
and ill-conceived policy which led to the first Afghan war. His idea
(so far as he had one) was, with the help of Brown Bess and British
bayonets, to replace Dost Muhammed, who had sat on the throne there
for twenty years without giving any real trouble, by an incompetent
upstart of his own nomination, Shah Shuja.

Lieutenant James's regiment, the 21st Bengal Native Infantry, was
among those selected to join the expeditionary force appointed to
"uphold the prestige of the British Raj"; and, as was the custom at
that time, Lola, mounted on an elephant (which she shared with the
colonel's better half), and followed by a train of baggage camels and
a pack of foxhounds complete, accompanied her husband to the frontier.
The other ladies included Mrs. McNaghten and Mrs. Robert Sale and the
Governor-General's two daughters. It is just possible that Macaulay
had a glimpse of Lola, for a contemporary letter says that "he turned
out to wish the party farewell."

The "Army of the Indus" was given a good send off by a loyal native
prince, Ranjeet Singh (the "Lion of the Punjaub"), who, on their march
up country, entertained the column in a rest-camp at Lahore with "showy
pageants and gay doings," among which were nautch dances, cock-fights,
and theatricals. He meant well, no doubt, but he contrived to upset a
chaplain, who declared himself shocked that a "bevy of dancing
prostitutes should appear in the presence of the ladies of the family of
a British Governor-General." Judging from a luscious account that Lola
gives of a big durbar, to which all the officers and their wives were
bidden, these strictures were not unjustifiable. Thus, after Lord
Auckland ("in sky blue inexpressibles") and his host had delivered
patriotic speeches (with florid allusions to the "British Raj," the
"Sahib Log," and the "Great White Queen," and all the rest of it) gifts
were distributed among the assembled company. Some of these were of an
emba