beseech you, and may Heaven guard and preserve you wherever you may go!"

I saw that to urge her further on the subject would be of no avail; to remain longer, would only distress her more; wherefore folding her tenderly in my arms, I bade her a last farewell; and we thus parted, not to meet again, during the course of many ensuing years.

CHAPTER III.

THE MARCH TO HYDERABAD.

“The sun went down on many a brow,

Which, full of bloom and freshness then,

Is rankling in the pest-house now,

And ne'er will feel that sun again!"

MOORE.

A MARCH with one's regiment in India, during a dry and salubrious season of the year, often affords a pleasing variety to the usually monotonous course of military existence in cantonments or quarters; and such we found the commencement of our move from Madras to Hyderabad.

Freshly recruited and now nearly renovated from the disastrous results of the Burmese campaign; the regiment left Madras in good health and spirits, and at a period which held forth the promise of a pleasant, although a very lengthened march.

We were nearly always under cover of our

tents before the sun became unpleasantly hot; during the day, being fully engaged with my studies, I never lacked amusement or occupation, and generally strolled out about sunset with my gun.

In the evening we would assemble in the mess tent, where the first hours of the night were always passed pleasantly and convivially away. In short, until we reached the banks of the Kishna, we had progressed smoothly and happily towards our destination.

But at this point, a sad and fearful change most unexpectedly took place. We had been toilsomely engaged during nearly the whole day, ferrying the regiment across the river in those very primitive, circular, wicker-basket boats, covered with leather, which from time immemorial have probably been made use of for a similar purpose.

The want of bridges and military roads, is one of the many shameful instances of neglect in the government of India, which has been so justly stigmatized, with the observation, "that if we lost that country to-morrow, nothing save the débris of crockery and beer-bottles, would remain to evince any token of upwards of a century of British rule."

Only a few slight accidents had occurred, such as one or two baggage-bullocks being drowned, and a camp-follower's "tattoo" (pony) carried off by an alligator. At last we all reached the northern bank, on whose barren, rocky, and uneven surface the men were soon busily employed in pitching their tents, whilst a glorious sunset, and a cool balmy breeze, had promised to cheer and invigorate us after the arduous toil we had undergone during the heat of a grilling day.

Whether all this exposure to the sun and consequent fatigue had acted as a predisposing cause, or that the germs of that fearful and mysterious malady, which was shortly to make such ravages in our ranks, were already lurking on the river's edge;* is of course impossible to decide. Be that, however, as it may, the horrors of the ensuing night were too appalling ever to be obliterated from my mind.

Bradford, who was a keen, good sportsman, had come into my tent, with fowling-piece in hand. Fatigued with previous exertions and exposure to the sun, I had thrown myself listlessly on my camp couch, contemplating

* The banks of large rivers in India are said to be particularly liable to the influence of cholera.

the departing splendour of the setting sun, which streamed through the opened canvass walls, illumining all nature with its golden beams.

66

Well, my friend," said the Doctor, leaning on his double-barrelled gun, and looking around him with his usual contented and happy smile; "we've all had a hard day of it: I'm not sorry 'tis over, and that we're at last fairly settled for the night; beware, however, of scorpions on this stony and rocky soil, where they're generally to be found.

But come, old fellow," added he, “we've better than half an hour of daylight before us; don't you hear the calls of the painted partridge challenging us to have a crack at them before they go to roost?

"Come along therefore, we may perhaps yet have time to knock over a brace, maybe a few quail, before 'tis quite dark. But stay, I'll first drop a ball into my left-hand barrel, for in this part of the country, you're as likely in a patch of jungle to stumble on a cheetah or royal tiger as on a pea-fowl or a hare.

Now then," continued he after ramming down a bullet, "if you're ready, we'll stroll on towards yonder bend of the river, and we may