irty
mounted soldiers with muskets and swords. My pony was held by a
horseman, who rode before me. We set off at a furious gallop.
Thus we travelled for miles until we arrived at a spot where the
_Pombo_ with a following of Lamas, banner-men, and soldiers, some
two hundred in all, were drawn up. Here my pony was allowed to go
on first, and the others reined up and drew aside. As I passed
before the _Pombo_ and his following a person named Nerba (the
Private Secretary of the Tokchim Tarjum) deliberately knelt and
fixed his musket on its rest and fired at me from a few paces.
The bullet whizzed past me: I was still at a gallop, which no
doubt saved my life, as the marksman could not take a steady aim.
My pony took fright and reared and plunged, but I maintained my
seat, though I was being cruelly pricked by the spikes in the
crupper. My pony was then seized and a long cord with a swivel at
the end was fastened to my handcuffs. The cord was about fifty
yards long. The other end was held by a horseman. In this way we
all set off at a hard gallop, and in order to accelerate the
speed, a horseman rode by my side and he lashed my pony furiously
to make it go at its hardest; meanwhile the horseman who held the
cord did his utmost to pull me out of the saddle, so that I would
have of a certainty been trampled to death by the cohort behind
me. While thus riding furiously with my arms extended backwards I
had the flesh rubbed off my hands and knuckles, so much so that
the bone was exposed in places, and as the horseman at the back
tugged to get me off and I clung hard with my knees, every tug
brought me into forcible contact with the spikes in the crupper
and wounded me cruelly. The cord was one made of yak's hair. It
was strong, but it eventually gave way. The shock unhorsed the
soldier. I was all but thrown. This ludicrous incident provoked
much mirth among my guards. They stopped my pony and the runaway
steed of the dismounted cavalier. The cord was retied with sundry
strong knots, and after an interruption of a few minutes we
resumed our breakneck gallop, I being in front. When nearing
Galshio, and as I was going round the curve of a sandhill, a
soldier, who had been posted in ambush, fired a shot at me from a
few paces distant. The shot did not strik