When sickness broke out our men became divided into two classes, one of which the thought of the precariousness of their position sobered, while in the other it produced diametrically the opposite effect. These last, in order to drown care, drank hard and lived merrily; and, strange as it may sound, it is nevertheless true, that of them nine out of ten escaped. To my shame be it spoken, the example of these reckless livers had more influence over me than that which the graver men set, and I drank, in consequence, harder during the prevalence of that epidemic than ever I did before or have ever done since; the result on one occasion was this.

There was a standing order from the surgeon, that whenever any of the men were observed to take to their beds, or lounge upon them at unbecoming seasons, the serjeant of the day should direct them to be removed at once to the hospital. It happened, once upon a time, that my comrade and I having gone together for the purpose, as I well remember, of purchasing a glass for my watch, we were asked by a native merchant whether or not we should like to be supplied with a bottle of superlatively good wine. Such a suggestion was not to be neglected, so we adjourned to his tent, and there, together with a little bread and cheese, consumed between us three bottles of Cape, which the honest old man sold to us for genuine Madeira. The wine proved too much for us. To walk home with it was out of the question, so we ordered a covered bullock-car, drawn by two animals, and jogged along in this clumsy vehicle towards the barracks. Arrived there, nothing would content us but a dram of arrack; and the vile spirit coming immediately upon the scarcely less deleterious wine, placed us at once hors de combat. We staggered to our beds and were both fast asleep in a moment.

How long I had lain in a state of unconsciousness I cannot tell; but a vivid dream, in which I saw that the regiment had marched, leaving me behind, at length awoke me. It was pitch dark. I sat up in my bed, rubbed my eyes, tried to collect my thoughts, but could not. One of my arms, moreover, being somewhat stiff, tended still more to confuse me. In a word, I was completely distracted. Accordingly I stretched my hand towards the wall, in order to ascertain whether boots, saddle, accoutrements, &c., continued to hang where it was my custom to arrange them. They were not there--and the conviction became strong that it was no idle dream of which I was the victim, but that I had indeed been abandoned by my comrades. Full of alarm, I sprang out of bed; and determined to make my way to the apartment in which troop A used to be stationed, I rushed towards what I conceived to be the bolted door of my own room, and pressed the whole weight of my body against it.

A door it doubtless was which in this strange way I had encountered, and as it did not happen to be so much as on the latch, the result to myself was a roll heels over head. Not having sustained any injury, however, I immediately gathered myself up again, and in the very bitterness of grief shouted out, "Are you all gone?"

A feeble voice, the tones of which were not unfamiliar to me, replied by demanding, "Is that you, George?"

"To be sure it is," was my answer. "In the name of fortune where am I ?"

"Don't you know?" was the reply.

"Know!" answered I, "how should I ? Is the regiment gone, and are you and I left to die here together?"

"No, to be sure not, but you are in the hospital."

"In the what?"

"In the hospital--you and your comrade were brought in yesterday afternoon, both labouring under apoplectic fits; and if you had done what was right and becoming, you would have been a dead man by this time."

In an instant the whole truth flashed across me, and the adventure appeared so ridiculous, that, hurrying back to my bed, I there indulged in a hearty fit of laughing. Neither was the disposition to be merry removed when daylight exhibited my comrade, lying on the opposite side of the room, and wondering, as I had done when I first awoke, where he was, or whether his identity had not changed. The result of the whole affair was, however, this. After learning that the serjeant on duty, a young and rash man, had ordered us to be carried into hospital, without so much as waking us to ascertain how we were, and that the surgeon took from each of us on the instant, thirty ounces of blood, the loss of which only caused us to sleep the more soundly, we were given to understand that we should again be visited in our turns by the medical staff, as well as by the colonel and adjutant of the regiment. Accordingly, at the fitting time, the whole of these gentlemen entered, and our cases were stated to the commandant, not, as I imagined, without a very quizzical expression in the countenance of him who reported upon us. We, too, were sorely puzzled to keep our gravity; but the mock examination ended in our being told to return to our quarters, and to take care how we put ourselves wantonly in the way of again being removed, as apoplectic subjects, into the hospital.

There died of the fever at this time not fewer than one hundred and twelve men, besides women and children, belonging to the 11th Dragoons. Our excellent surgeon also, Dr. Omally, fell a sacrifice to his indefatigable zeal and attention, and Captain Nowlan and the paymaster soon followed. Neither was the mortality confined to us; of the 87th infantry, as well as the Company's artillery, many stink under the disease, and the deaths among the native troops were to the full as numerous. At last, however, the monsoons set in, and with them came a complete relief from the pressure of the disease; occasionally a man would die, but the violence of the distemper had passed away, and we were enabled in consequence to enjoy ourselves both within doors and without, as far at least as a ceaseless fall of heavy rain would allow; and in truth the violence with which the floods came down surpassed every thing of which I could have formed an idea. I have seen the barrack-square converted in less than an hour into a tank or pond, in which there was a depth of two feet of water, through which swarms of small fish were swimming, very much, as may be imagined, to our astonishment, and greatly to the delight of the natives. Neither were we long left in doubt as to the causes of the phenomenon. One day I was suddenly invited to watch with my comrades the progress of a water-spout, the formation of which was going on at no great distance from the cantonments. I saw a column of water rise from a flooded meadow, and rush up, as it seemed, to meet a dense cloud that had gathered over it; the sun, too, happening to shine out at the moment, and to cast his rays obliquely upon the pillar, the effect was more beautiful than I have language to describe; and when in a few minutes afterwards the continuity of the pillar was broken, the spray from its lower portion fell over us as if it had been a shower of diamond sparks. It was not so with the heavily-laden cloud, which likewise in due time discharged its contents upon our heads. W e read and hear of rain that resembles the pouring of water out of buckets: I never till that day was able to believe that there was any substantial truth in the simile. Nor was this all; with the rush of waters came down shoals of fish, some of them of a size sufficient to excite the cupidity of the natives, who, attacking them with nets and buckets, conveyed them to their houses, and speedily converted them into material for a delicate supper.

As long as the monsoons last, the whole surface of the country is under water, and for a little while after the floods abate, the sterility is excessive. But in process of time vegetation begins, and the grass springs up, and the flowers blow with a rapidity which to the European strangers seems well nigh miraculous. Neither can the salubrity of the climate, while this state of things continues, be surpassed in any part of the world. I never experienced a more delicious temperature than that to which we were generally subject, from the end of October to the beginning of March. I never beheld a scene more delicately luxuriant and rich than the fields and meadows and woods presented during a considerable portion of that interval.

At last the season of relief came round; and the 8th light dragoons having arrived from Meerut, we received orders to pack up and march, for the purpose of occupying the station which they had abandoned. To such as have not witnessed in India the march of a regiment of cavalry, it would be no easy task to convey an idea of the extraordinary spectacle which is presented by it. Let my readers bear in mind, that troops never move in our Eastern possessions without carrying their market and their market people along with them. The bazaar, indeed, is not attached to the station, but to the corps: and the dealers being all regularly enrolled, must either go with the regiment whithersoever it may proceed, or cease to hold their licences as merchants. Hence, the night preceding the day on which the corps is to set out, all the tents in the bazaar are struck. Away then proceeds the motley crew, bullocks, cows, camels, horses, and here and there elephants, transporting their goods; and as the site of each day's encampment is beforehand explained to them, they are generally ready to receive the troops when they arrive, and to provide them with the necessary refreshments. Meanwhile, at the first sound of the trumpet, the tents required to lodge the regiment on its march are packed upon the backs of camels and elephants. The former class of animals carries one tent, the latter two; and when the enormous size of the machine is taken into account, as well as the pegs, lines, and mallets required in pitching it, the strength of both beasts of burden--especially of the elephant--surpasses our power of computation. Moreover, as each baggage-animal has its company of attendants, each troop horse its native groom, and each man his servant, and each officer his half dozen at least, I am sure that I do not place the numbers too high when I say, that for one trooper there are at least fifteen followers in the camp. I cannot, indeed, compare the march of the eleventh to any thing more appropriate than the flight of the Israelites out of Egypt; for the column, though in point of numbers respectable enough, was absolutely obscured even on the line of march, by the swarms of men, women, children, and beasts of burden, that surrounded it.

The march which begins at an early hour in the morning, generally continues till about nine, when the tents are pitched, and other preparations made to pass both the day and night on the ground. It is astonishing to see the enormous extent of that encampment. Our single regiment, for example, covered much more than a square mile of country, for the horses are picketed at wide intervals from each other, and the tents of the several troops pitched so as to keep the horses of the one apart from those of the other. Some way in rear again, stand the officers' tents, all set up in a row, like the street of a town; while further back still, is the bazaar--itself a town, and a very bustling town too, where every thing that is to be had in Calcutta may be purchased, though the corps be in the very heart of the jungle. Neither is the process by which we arrive at this state of order more akin to the operations of a mounted regiment in Europe, than the aspect of the Indian camp, resembles that of a camp in the western hemisphere. The word is no sooner given to halt, and dismount, than we hand over our charges to our native grooms. By them they are led to water, dressed, fed, and otherwise arranged, while we apply ourselves first to the business of breakfast, and then to the search after as many novelties, as the state of the bazaar may afford. But if we lead an easy life by day, it cannot be said that we enjoy much of quiet during the night: then all the brutes, whether horses or camels seem to break loose. There is a continual floundering over the tent-cords--a continual shouting of people--a continual neighing of steeds, insomuch that he who has self command enough to close an eye, or snatch an hour's sound sleep, need not distrust his own power of obtaining rest should he be thrown into any situation whatever.

I have neither the design nor the necessary qualifications to describe either the customs of the people, or the political condition of the country. Abler pens than mine have accomplished both tasks before me,--neither have I any ambition to bring my poor talents into competition with those of the men who wielded them. But the incidents which befel myself, and the little adventures that occured to others, I am bound to relate, even at the risk of saying over again what others have said, far more pleasantly.

On the seventh day from the evacuation of Cawnpore, we reached Feruckabad, which we found occupied by a considerable garrison, consisting entirely of the Company's troops. It is a pleasant place, having a market, which is well supplied with vegetables, more especially with the potato, of which a short while previous to our visit, the natives had never seen a specimen; and being built upon one of the banks of the Ganges, it enjoys at the same time the means of easy and direct transit for its produce. We did not however linger here more than a few days. By easy stages we proceeded onwards; and on the 6th of December, arrived at the place of our destination.

Meerut, which lies beyond Cawnpore somewhere about two hundred and seventy-five miles, struck me as being by far the most desirable station which we had as yet occupied since we landed at Fort William. Situated on the edge of an extensive plain, over which the winds from every quarter sweep freely, it is, beyond all question, more congenial to the constitutions of Europeans than any of the towns or cantonments that lie nearer the sea. Moreover, it forms the head-quarters of a large force, consisting of four troops of horse artillery, of one European, and one native cavalry regiment, of one regiment of European infantry, and two, if not three, of Sepoys. From among these, their wives and children, as well as because of the number of civilians that are also settled there, an extremely agreeable society is formed; and the habits of all classes being gregarious in the extreme, the intercourse kept up among them was of the closest. Then again on the plain we found ample space to manoeuvre and to exercise; and for other matters, whatever a man's tastes might be in reference to his out-door pursuits and athletic amusements, here ample opportunity was afforded of indulging them. We had cricket, long-ball, and rackets,--there was capital angling in the tanks, all of which swarmed with fine fish. There was shooting of every description,--not omitting to particularize that of the tiger itself.--and more than one magnificent carcase brought in testified to the skill and energy with which our officers pursued it. Indeed, I may sum up my commendations of the place by stating that I have no recollection that the time hung, throughout our sojourn there, heavy on our hands; and as to its influence upon our health, we soon began to wear again the same florid hues and filled-up frames that used to adorn us at home.

We had occupied these quarters some time,--having been visited in the interval by Sir Edward Paget,--when a rumour began to circulate that between the East India Company and the Rajah of Bhurtpore ground of dispute had arisen. The rajah in question, Doorjan Saal, had, as is well known, set aside his nephew, and, ascending the throne, began ere long to exhibit a disposition the reverse of friendly towards the English. Inhabiting a place which had never yet opened its gates to an enemy, and which, though thrice assaulted in Lord Lake's day, had thrice repulsed the assailants, he regarded himself, and was by the people of Hindostan in general regarded, as the only king throughout that vast continent who might be expected to counterbalance or hold in check the power of the strangers. Hence, having quarrelled, no matter about what, with the English government, he could not be prevailed upon, either by threats or remonstrances, to make the smallest concession; and on our part preparations began by degrees to be made towards curing him of his obstinacy, by depriving him at once of his fortress and his power.

It is no business of mine to remark on the steps which are taken by those high in power, and, as such, quite out of the sphere of a private soldier; but I only repeat what were the universal whispers in the army when I state that every necessary arrangement for carrying on the war with vigour was begun and completed by Sir Edward Paget. He was still in command of the troops in India when the necessity for war became apparent, and he it was who managed, in spite of the heavy drain occasioned by the operations that were in progress elsewhere, to draw an army together, and to supply it with such materiel as to render a failure under the walls of this famous citadel all but impossible. He did not, however, reap either the renown or the profit which attended the execution of plans which he had wisely laid. Just before active operations began, his successor arrived from England, and, with a generosity which was considered at the moment well nigh to overpass its legitimate limits, he instantly resigned the command. Now there was no necessity for this. It was noble, indeed, and chivalrous, because it enabled another to gather the crop which his wisdom had sown, matured, and brought to the very season of harvest,--but I do not believe that the rules of the service required it; and I know that the issues were by all ranks among us greatly deplored. I have nothing to say against Lord Combermere. He was, and is, an excellent officer, and richly merits whatever good fortune may have attended him. But Sir Edward Paget's name stands at least as high, and the soldiers that served under him could not but lament that he threw into other hands the prize for which be had played, and which he had won. However, this is a subject with which I have no concern; so I return, without further preamble, to my own narrative.