The siege being ended, and some of the principal fortifications blown up, one or two regiments of native infantry were left to complete the work of destruction; while the rest of the army drew off, and encamped at various points more or less distant from the trenches. Our encampment was not far removed from the citadel, nor had we occupied it long, ere a staff officer came in and desired that a troop might attend him, in pursuit of two or three loads of treasure which were understood to have escaped. It so happened that my troop was the first for duty; so away we went, carrying neither forage nor provisions along with us; and for two days and as many nights, our toil and privations were excessive. We penetrated through some tremendous passes, which a handful of resolute men might have held against an army, and more than once arrived at a village just in time to learn that the treasure with its escort had passed some hours previously, and was gone, nobody could tell where. The result was that after having been reluctantly compelled to pillage several villages, and to make free with the people's fodder, we returned to camp not more rich than when we set out; and had little else to show as a memorial of our wild expedition than horses more or less blemished, and ourselves jaded wellnigh to death.

It was soon after the conclusion of this abortive excursion, that the deserter of whom I spoke a short time ago, was hung over one of the bastions, after which the fortifications of the place were one after another thrown down. This done, the troops received orders to fall back towards their ancient stations, and we in obeying it had an opportunity of visiting several places of great and deserved repute among the people of Hindoostan. Among others we passed through Agra, where I beheld the superb tomb of the Shah Schan and his favourite wife, a structure so gorgeous, that any attempt to describe it even with the pencil would be preposterous. It stands upon a terrace confronting the river, the whole of which is paved in mosaic; and being itself composed entirely of beautiful white marble, offers, with its four minarets, and its noble stair of ascent, one of the most magnificent specimens of a very peculiar style of architecture that the imagination of man can conceive. Here too are the tombs of several ministers of state, scarcely less magnificent, though formed of different kinds of stone, some being red, others of a darker colour; yet all strikingly beautiful. But I must not dwell upon subjects with which I feel myself inadequate to deal. Rather let me return to my own personal narrative, of which little more remains to be told; inasmuch as life in India to a private soldier has for the most part too much of sameness in it to sanction any endeavour on his part to draw out its details beyond the narrowest limits.

On the 12th of March, 1826, we resumed our old quarters at Cawnpore, through which not long after our arrival, passed the ex-rajah of Bhurtpore, on his way as a state prisoner to Calcutta. And here I am reluctantly compelled to acknowledge that a disposition to carry to a terrible excess all the vices that appertain to this country, showed itself in our regiment, and especially among the remains of the volunteers from the 8th. The habit, indeed, of drunkenness, became so confirmed among us that there was no making head against it; and frequent attempts at assassination, not always, I grieve to say, abortive, were the consequence. I cannot in terms sufficiently strong caution my brother soldiers against the folly, as well as the wickedness of yielding themselves up to so terrible a vice.

Even if they be preserved from dipping their hands in the blood of their fellow-creatures they are sure, under the influence of its madness to be hurried into actions which must cover them with shame, and entail on them long years of fruitless remorse. But I know by experience how little the experience of others is, by giddy young men apt to be regarded. I can, therefore, serve them in nothing more effectually, than by expressing my earnest wish that they may buy the one, if buy it they must, at a rate less ruinous than it has been my fortune to see it purchased by others, whose prospects for the future were at one time bright as a morning in May.

If I except a visit which the Governor-general paid us, and the occurrence of a frightful fire, by which both barracks and stables were destroyed, there occurred throughout the remaining months of the year nothing of which I consider it necessary to make mention. The fire in question cost us, I remember, a good many of our horses; for besides that, several perished ere we could get them clear of the burning pile; not a few scampered off into the heart of the country and never came back to us again. My own brute was a perfect devil, and chanced to be among the number of those, which, finding themselves momentarily free from bit and halter, tried to regain their liberty: but to my extreme mortification the monster was one day brought back. He was a perfect scarecrow when he came, and I heartily regretted that I was ever so unfortunate as to see him again.

From Cawnpore we moved to Meerut, where, since we last occupied the station, the same accident had occurred which rendered ourselves, for a time, houseless. We were therefore agreeably surprised to find a range of new and commodious barracks thrown up for our reception. We made ourselves as comfortable in them as circumstances would allow, and became witnesses on one occasion to such a fall of hailstones, as I at least, never beheld in any part of Europe. The blocks of ice, for they were nothing less, measured, many of them, a full inch in length; and they fell with such violence, as not only to destroy the blossom and even the upper branches of the fruit trees, but seriously to injure the people that were abroad, and here and there to kill their cattle. I confess that as I gazed abroad upon the phenomenon, my thoughts reverted to the account which Moses gives of a similar judgment inflicted on the Egyptians long ago: and I could not but feel, that had this continued many hours longer, there would have been little left for the locusts to glean, had supreme power determined that they should come to complete the ruin which the elements had begun.

Our life in India was not, however, entirely a strange intermixture of military duty, and dissipation, and shere idleness. We had, both at Meerut and elsewhere, our more rational amusements also. For example, while we lay at Meerut, Mr. Wolf, the well-known missionary, paid us a visit, and his discourses, for he preached to us by the commandant's permission, were, if not very edifying, at all events abundantly strange. He gave us a detailed account of his wanderings--of the persecutions to which he had been subjected, and of the fragments of the scattered tribes which he had discovered in various places. Nay he was so imprudent as to venture into the field of prophecy itself, and to fix the year 1846, as that in which the restoration of Israel shall take place. We looked at one another, not knowing very well what to make of the speaker, so long as he confined himself to details like these. But when he proceeded to assure us that he had cast out devils, and to describe the very process by which the operation was carried through, we could not stand his palaver any longer. It is a rash thing in these days to assume the character either of a prophet, or a worker of miracles.

Again the country round Meerut abounding with game, we were permitted, from time to time, to go out in quest of it; and in parties of six or eight, we passed many a pleasant day, and even week in the jungle. But with me, as well as with many more, the season of enjoyment passed rapidly away, and dilapidated constitutions, as well as great bodily weakness, warned us that it was high time to think of retirement, and of a preparation for another and a still more momentous change. Accordingly in the beginning of 1835 I applied for my discharge, and the necessary papers being made out, I began, in the month of February, in company with invalids from many other corps, my march towards Calcutta. It is not worth while to describe at length the particulars of that journey. It was not a pleasant one, for it was performed chiefly by water; and of invalids whom no officer looks after, even native boatmen take less care than they might do. Nevertheless, after suffering various inconveniences, we reached the capital of British India, just in time to learn that the last ship of the season had sailed. The consequence was that up to the month of January in 1836 we lingered amid the heat and squalor of Calcutta. Then, however, berths being found for us on board the teak-built ship the Hungerford, such of us as had survived the miseries of the last ten months embarked for England.

We had upon the whole a pleasant passage. Some trifling accidents occurred, such as the death of a man whom a shark devoured while bathing, and the loss of another who fell overboard; and we had our own share of enjoyments, especially when at anchor off the Cape, whence supplies of fresh provisions, wines, and vegetables were brought to us. But why continue these details? On the 25th of May we disembarked at Gravesend; from that place we marched to Chatham, and there, after an interval of three weeks I at length obtained my discharge. I cannot say that the remuneration allotted to me was too great; for my pension, after so many years service, amounts only to tenpence a day, and I am by far too much worn out to add to it greatly by personal exertion.