'November 30.-Still mending traps. I was employed all day looking after the repairs.

'December 1.-Marched to Gudda Khail; distance about ten miles; the road excellent. Gudda Khail is situated in a small durrah, and is a miserable little place enough. My fool of a quartermaster stuck us down in the middle of

the pass.

'The Sirdar went out hawking and sent me some partridges.

'December 2.-Marched to Lachee. The country has the wildest appearance imaginable, but is certainly very picturesque. It is rather depressing to think how wild, and, at present, hopelessly barbarous its inhabitants are. Our course lies through the very extreme spurs of vast mountain ranges. I wish Pater could see some of the wild picturesque scenes and groups I see sometimes. It comes upon me strangely now and then that I am the Hurly Burly, and as much a boy at heart as ever that distinguished individual was; and all this game of man I am playing daily, among men old enough to be each and all my grandfather, vanishes then before the peaceful and placid visions the recollection gives rise to.

'December 3.-Marched to Ismail Khail; at least that was our intended halting-place, but, finding no water, we were obliged to go two miles further to Munsoorgurh.

'About two miles after leaving Lachee we entered a pass, and, after crossing the bed of a stream, commenced the ascent. I have seen guns before in strange positions, but never have seen anything to equal the places that I have to-day beheld them crashing and bumping over. We are in the habit of thinking a violently excited horse, par

I

ticularly when rearing and kicking in the midst of others with men on their backs, rather a nuisance; but here we had six horses, harnessed to a heavy gun and limber, rearing, plunging, kicking, and pulling, by mad starts and dashes, up a steep and rocky acclivity covered with large detached stones. We succeeded in getting all over, with damage to one pole, a hackery or two, and the bouleversement of a waggon. The rearward of the line of march did

not reach camp till evening.

'December 4.-Marched to Kujjooree, a short march of about five miles, and the road pretty good.

'December 5.—Marched to Chounterah. The first three or four miles stony and rough; we had a ravine to cross, after which we got into the bed of a salt river and followed it for a long distance, say eight miles, and then entered a narrow pass where the road became extremely difficult for wheeled carriages. The road had been made in some places, otherwise we should never have got along at all. After about a mile and a half of road like this we came to the famous Koondh-i-gou, a singular fissure in a long bladelike ridge of rock through which the road passes. It has much the appearance of a deep cleft made with a sword. It had been filled up to a height of six or eight feet expressly for our passage, but even then it was only just wide enough to admit of the passage of a gun, and I saw several camel-loads nearly knocked off by the sides in going through. A hundred or even fifty men might defend it against three armies.

'It was a curious thing to see the army filing through this gorge, and the crush on the wrong side of it was a sight to behold-Sikh and Afghan horse and infantry in

every variety of costume, from the flowing and costly robes of the Sirdar's immediate retainers, to the "turn out " of the scullion or the dog-keeper pressed into boots and a shirt of mail to make up the war muster of his master. All these crowded together, with the jaunty zumboorchee on his finely-decorated camel jangling like a church steeple on a wedding-day, and the sullen and mischievous-looking hill footmen with their long blue tunics, ponderous guns, blue turbans, and long matted locks. These last, however, often kept aloof, and herding together in small groups passed their remarks in low muttering tones on the passersby, and I doubt not the burden of them was often much that of the Borderer on seeing Marmion's gay cortège pass by in going through the Scottish camp. We had very hard work with the hackeries, and the infantry, who were helping in getting them over the difficulties, did not reach camp till evening. A gun was upset without suffering any damage, and altogether we have been wonderfully lucky in getting six guns over such roads without suffering more than we have.

'December 6.-Halt. When I was writing after breakfast I was suddenly surprised by a man rushing into my tent and saying that a saheb had arrived. On going out, who should I find but Edwardes, the other general, who had ridden over from his camp about thirty miles off! He was looking well but sad. Poor fellow, he has just lost his brother.

1 Each Borderer to his kinsman said:

'Hist, Ringan! seest thou there!

Canst guess which road they'll homeward ride?

O! could we but on Border side,

By Eusedale glen, or Liddell's tide,

Beset a prize so fair!'

'December 7.-Marched to Khurruk, reaching that longtalked-of place two days after the appointed time, which, considering the roads and passes we have come over, I do not think so bad. Edwardes left me and rode on to his

own army.

'December 8.-Marched to Joor, a long march of ten koss,' but the road good enough.

'The two armies joined here, and together made a very respectable show. There were five infantry regiments, two of Edwardes's and three of mine, three troops of horse artillery, one regiment of cavalry, 500 Ghorchurrahs, 1,000 of Sirdar Sultan Mahomed's horse, and about 80 zumboorahs.' 2

The following day the whole force marched to Jhundoo Khail in Bunnoo, the camp being pitched on the banks of the Koorrum. Edwardes at once set to work to measure the land, but this proceeding seemed likely to provoke an immediate row with the Wuzeerees.' Swahn Khan, the Wuzeeree mullick, to whom I shall have cause to refer later, came in and said 'that the measurement was doubtless a very nice idea, but that, if it was done with any intention of taking revenue, it might as well be dispensed with, as such a thing was altogether visionary, and could certainly never come to pass.'

Affairs looked awkward, and Reynell Taylor, who had been ordered to return to Peshawur as soon as he had joined forces with Edwardes, at once countermanded his march. However, after a long palaver with Swahn Khan, the Esakhailee, and other mullicks, the prospect of an

1 A 'koss' varies from a mile and a half to two miles.

2 Camel-swivels.

amicable arrangement appeared more favourable, so Reynell Taylor adhered to his original plan.

On December II, accompanied by Sirdar Zagah Khan, 250 horsemen and 20 zumboorahs, he accordingly set out on his return march. He reached Kohat on the 14th, and he writes in his diary this day :-'I shall never see Kohat without thinking of the four gloomy days I passed here as a general.'

Great preparations had been made by Sirdar Sultan Mahomed for his safe passage through the Kohat Durrah, as the Afreedees had come down from the mountains, and, it was feared, meditated an attack on the column. The country had been raised, and parties of horse and foot posted all along the road, and, thanks to these precautions, Reynell Taylor reached Peshawur on December 15 in safety.