of battle, Bahaud-din Khan, late of the
Kasilbash Horse, joined the Guides, and was made a non-commissioned
officer on the spot. For two long years, through the many ups and downs
of the campaign, through much severe fighting and many a hardship, he
did good and valiant service. It was only when the war was over, and the
corps was nearing India on its downward march, that Bahaud-din Khan
began to lose his reckless devil-may-care bearing; he seemed sad, and
dispirited, and out of sorts altogether.

"Why, what ails you, my man?" said Jenkins one day as he chanced across
him on the march.

"Nothing, Sahib; I am very happy in the service of the Queen, and I feel
it an honour to serve in the Guides."

"Well, then, why look so doleful? One would think you had lost your best
horse, or broken the sword of your ancestors on the head of a buffalo,"
laughed Jenkins.

"The truth cannot be hidden from you, Sahib, so I will tell it,"
ingenuously replied Bahaud-din Khan. "My comrades tell me that down at
Mardan they have to do riding-school and drill, and all that sort of
thing. Well, I don't think, Sahib, that is quite in my line. Give me as
much fighting as you like, but I'm too old a soldier to go bumping round
a riding-school. Therefore, with your Honour's kind permission I think I
will take my leave, and return to Yaghistan, the land of never-ending
conflict."

"By all means," said Jenkins; "no man stays in the Guides against his
will. You are a free man from this moment."

And so, very near the same spot where he had taken service on the field
of battle, Bahaud-din Khan quietly took his discharge, and rode off,
like a knight of old, to place his sword at the service of any who
wanted it. "But riding-school, God forbid!" he muttered as he went.

It is not intended to follow the Guides through all the phases of the
Afghan War, but only to tell the story of some of their gallant
adventures. One of the earliest of these was at the little battle of
Fattehabad, where Wigram Battye was killed, and Walter Hamilton earned
the Victoria Cross.[19] A small force consisting of portions of the 10th
Hussars, Guides' cavalry, 17th Foot, forty-five Sikhs, together with a
battery of horse-artillery, were sent on from Jellalabad, as an advance
force to clear the road to Kabul. About twelve miles out, at the village
of Fattehabad, General Gough[20] was suddenly threatened in flank by a
great gathering of Afghan tribesmen.

[19] Here aga