let. I turned my head to see if escape were possible, but this idea to make a detour came too late; a thousand other men had already blocked retreat. I was a prisoner hard and fast; no manacles could have fettered me more closely. Then, as we drew nearer to the gate, its very contiguity suggested a new danger. The crowd was not only pressing forward to get out, but each individual element of it strove to avoid the Scylla and Charybdis of the iron portals. A young and lovely girl was in front of me. I saw her cheek blanch at the prospect of the final crush, and I whispered in her ear, "Courage! I'll save you or die in the attempt!"

Already the struggle had literally become one, if not of life and death, at least one of torn clothing and perhaps lacerated limbs. I thrust my arms under those of the young lady, and bore her straight for the centre of the gate-way. It was very well I did so while I had the power, for now, in the supreme moment of the fight, I had no foothold. We were

both of us off the ground, forced forward with aimless velocity by the surging mass; but in another second I felt impelled as by a battering-ram into empty space, and I only dropped the girl as we were both landed safely in the street.

Her Majesty's gracious message to her subjects next day proved that both she and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales fully realized the inevitable pain and suffering-to say nothing of the trouble and expense-endured by the London public on such an occasion. It was no mere ideal loyalty, no lip service or imitative effusiveness which prompted and sustained the metropolitan world that day, but it was the devotion that sprang from conscious and inherent respect for our Queen, and love for the heir to the throne as the constitutional emblem of social unity.

I need not further comment on the day's proceedings. They will ever remain rooted in the memory of the fortunate ones who witnessed them throughout.

Suffice it to say that, next to the unique splendour of the gathering within the walls of St. Paul's, nothing could surpass the grandeur of the scene in Albert Hall that same evening, when Sims Reeves sonorously, and with the utmost sympathetic emotion, sang "God

bless the Prince of Wales."

The audience rose tumultuously and joined irrepressibly in the chorus, and cheering long and loud followed every verse of the inspiriting melody.

Meanwhile, the illuminations had set in, and there were enticing gas devices to be viewed in all directions; but, rightly deeming the song to which we had just listened, the most fitting finale to the day's thanksgiving, we betook ourselves by Underground Railway to Charing Cross, and leisurely walking across the bridge, we noted the glare from myriad lights in the distant streets, and heard the roar of everincreasing rapturous applause as the vast crowd permeating the more important thoroughfares came suddenly in view of some fresh decoration or loyal device in gas.

Big Ben sounded the hour of eleven in clear and tuneful notes as we reached Waterloo Station, and before its iron tongue rang forth the advent of another morn we found ourselves once more within the homely walls of our quiet Norbiton retreat.

317

MEMOIR OF LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR FREDERICK SLEIGH ROBERTS, Bart., V.C., G.C.B., C.I.E., R.A.

BY CHARLES RATHBONE LOW, (late) I.N., F.R.G.S.

CHAPTER VII.

The Looshai Campaign-Description of the Country and cause of the War-Colonel Roberts fits out the two Columns of the Expeditionary Force-He joins General Bourchier at Cachar-March of the Cachar Column-Arrival at Tipai Mookh-Attack on the Kholel villages led by Colonel Roberts-Further operations against the LooshuisAction of the 25th January, 1872-Colonel Roberts commands at the capture of Taikoom-Arrival at Chum fai-Conclusion of Peace and return of the Column to India-Roberts is appointed QuartermasterGeneral at Army Headquarters-His services in that capacity-Lord Lytton and General Roberts-Roberts is nominated Commandant of the Punjaub Irregular Force and Special Commissioner on the ScindePunjaub Frontier.

In 1871 the Indian Government was involved in hostilities with the wild tribes on the south-east frontier of Bengal, known by the common name of Looshai, and Colonel Roberts' services were again brought into requisition. Their country, almost a terra incognita, is situated between the southern extremity of the Cachar district and the northern boundery of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and consists of a belt of land about 100 miles in length, traversed by high ranges of mountains running nearly due north and south. On the Chittagong side of the Looshai portion of the country, these mountains are more or less inhabited, but towards the Cachar frontier the broad and swampy valleys are almost entirely devoid of population, a result due not so much to their unhealthiness as to the raids of more powerful neighbours.

The Looshais, says Colonel Roberts*, are a family of

* See "Narrative of the Cachar Column, Looshai Expeditionary Force," published in vol. ii. of the "Journal of the United Service Institution of India," in which the author minutely describes the organization of the Expedition.

A A

the great Kokie tribe, who may be found in Independent, or Hill, Tipperah, which bounds the Looshai country on the west. The Looshais first raided on British territory in 1850, and in January of the following year, Colonel Lyster, political agent in the Cossyah and Jynteah Hills, and Commandant of the Sylhet Light Infantry, marched from Cachar with a small force, and penetrated their country a distance of 100 miles, inflicting severe punishment and releasing 400 captives, but he expressed his "confirmed impression that this robber tribe will not cease to infest the frontier until they shall have been most severely dealt with." Matters seemed tolerably quiet until 1862, when aggressions occurred in Sylhet, culminating in 1868-69 in a series of outrages on the tea gardens of Cachar, when the Government despatched two columns under Brigadier-General Nuthall and Major Stephenson, 7th Native Infantry, with twenty days' provisions. But the expedition started too late in the season, and was ill-organized, and returned without meeting with opposition or effecting any of the objects sought to be attained.

The Supreme Government now tried the policy of conciliation, and on the 20th December, 1869, Mr. Edgar, Deputy Commissioner of the district, accompanied by Major Macdonald of the Survey Department, and a small escort of police, left Cachar and visited Soonai and Beparee Bazaar, the centre of the territory of Sookpilal, the most powerful of the chiefs raiding on British territory, who paid him a visit on the 23rd March, and discussed the question of the boundary between the Looshai and British states. In the following December, Majors Macdonald and Graham, the Civil Officer, were deputed to proceed with a small police escort on a friendly mission to the country of the Sylhoos, situated to the south of Sookpilal's territory, and Mr. Edgar penetrated to Dullesur, where he had an interview with Sookpilal, who, on the part of the western chiefs, agreed to the boundary clearly defined in a "sunnud" or written engagement, but declared that he could not act on

behalf of the tribes to the east of the Soonai river. But the old chief was acting with duplicity, and at this time the Sylhoos and Howlongs, tribes to the north and north-east of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and the north-eastern Looshais, under Lalboorah, entered Sylhet and Cachar, destroying villages and property, killing the coolies and Mr. Winchester, a tea-grower, whose daughter, six years of age, was carried off. To recover this second little Helen of Troy, "the direful spring of woes unnumbered," a considerable force was assembled, and the Indian Government found itself involved in hostilities.

At this time Lord Napier of Magdala, the Commander-in-Chief, accompanied by Brigadier-General George Bourchier, C.B., commanding the eastern frontier, whose name has appeared before in these pages, happened to be on a tour of inspection through the district, and under his lordship's instructions, the Brigadier-General proceeded to Shillong to take steps for the protection of that frontier, and despatched a small force up the Soonai river, which succeeded in ensuring the safety of Mr. Edgar, then returning from his mission to Sookpilal. On the 24th February the Commander-in-Chief, having inspected Dibrooghur and the other stations on the Brahmapootra, reached Cachar, and, as the season was too far advanced for active operations, in conjunction with the General commanding the district, made arrangements for defending the frontier, forts and stockades being established at suitable points, with roads communicating between them.

Acting on the recommendation of Lord Napier, the Supreme Government, on the 30th June, 1871, directed the Military Department to organize an expedition in the Looshai country, to consist of two columns, starting from Cachar and Chittagong, with the forces of the Rajahs of Munnepore and Tipperah acting in co-operation, while the services of Sook pilal were to be brought in requisition on the north, and of Rutton Pooea, a powerful chief, on the south from which side the Chittagong column would attack.