Punjabs, and I am glad to let their friends at home know what they, perhaps, would omit to state-that they both displayed such cool and steady courage, as well as conspicuous valour, that they have both been mentioned for the Victoria Cross.

About noon on our second day's march our scouts brought us in intelligence that the enemy's pickets were in force along the three converging roads leading from Padkhao to Altimore. Their main body of cavalry, acting as an advanced guard, held the large village of Padkhao, which is situated on a small stream about twelve miles south of our present camp at Zurgun Shahr. I was allowed to go out at 3.30 a.m. on the Ist with our advanced guard, consisting of detachments from our three corps, numbering fifty sabres, and commanded by my friend Atkinson, who had with him young Leslie Bishop as second in command. About four miles from Padkhao Shana I rode with a couple of files, both good shots, to a small rocky eminence upon our right, and where we noticed the ruined walls of a dismantled fort. From this coign of vantage we could see without being seen, and, with delight, we observed a column of some thousand or twelve hundred infantry moving parallel to us and on our right flank in the direction of Altimore.

Leaving my men to watch, I galloped back to our Brigadier, who was most anxiously waiting my return; and he at once, seeing the ground was fairly practicable, ordered our whole line to form to the right, and charge! Never was any movement better timed. As our welldrilled squadrons swung round at a canter into line, not a man was out of place; not an interval was lost! Our first line consisted of the 1st Punjab Cavalry on the

right and the 19th Punjab Cavalry on the left, with the 2nd Punjabs in rear as support. The Brigadier, upon a splendid grey Arab of great substance and speed, rode ten horse-lengths in front, with his A. D. C., young Barrow, close on the right rear, both keeping the line as steady and as straight as on parade. The ground at first was sloping downwards, intersected by several small watercourses, and here and there some awkward boulders, over which my horse twice or thrice nearly came to grief. The men, however, were steady, kept their horses well in hand, and took the time from their squadron-leaders. After we had gone about six hundred yards the ground became more level, more free from obstacles, and our chief allowed us to improve the pace. When we were within half a mile of the enemy his cavalry-apparently about 700 sabres-broke and fled, leaving the unfortunate footmen to their fate.

We were now cantering at an easy pace across a level and open plain, rising slightly as we advanced, the best possible ground for a charge of cavalry; and when we came within about three hundred yards of the Afghan infantry their generals managed to rally them into some kind of separate squares to receive our shock. They were, however, too late, and our fellows in the front line got in amongst them before they were quite formed. Never did I see such a déroute. Never did I hear such a clash of horse against man, of sabre against shield, of lance against foeman's breast. Palliser, Barrow, and Atkinson, were in front, with Gordon, 19th, on their right flank. The squadron and troop-leaders came next, and our long, unbroken line of turbaned squadrons behind, with lance and sabre at the engage. 'Well done, the 1st!' 'Steady, my lads!' 'Go it, Bob!'

'Bravo, Jack!' Such were the European exclamations from officer to officer along the line while we broke the half-formed squares, and engaged hand-to-hand with our foe-surprised, but, for a time, at bay.

The ground now became more broken, and as our formation was, in a measure, gone, the footmen were enabled for a short time to hold their own against the sowars, whose horses were somewhat blown. Had the Afghan cavalry at this juncture been at hand, and taken us in flank, we might have lost severely; but they did not return, while our second line of reserves and supports coming up completed the route of our antagonists.

The pursuit was continued for more than five miles, and until the fugitives who survived managed to obtain some shelter from the hills which bounded the plain, which, when we recrossed it, we found was strewn with arms, standards, and all sorts of débris, amongst which were many guns of English make, including Martinis and Sniders. Two hundred and fifty bodies of the enemy, I am told, were counted on the plain; but I will not dwell on such ghastly details, which are the necessary consequences of human battle.

Our loss was wonderfully small, considering the stand made by our enemy. Burrows had a narrow escape, and would have been speared had not one of his jemmadars pinned the man with his lance. Three of our men killed, and only some twenty-two wounded, made up our casualties. Mahomed Sultan and Mahomed Synd Khan were the principal Afghan leaders, while the rank and file were nearly all Zurmuts.

We reached our camp at Zurgun Shahr about seven the same evening, having, as I have said, been some

fifteen hours in the saddle, and covering some thirtyfive or forty miles!

Meanwhile coming events are already casting their shadows before, and certain engineering operations are on the tapis at Cabul, which to an observant mind seem to point to a change of masters in the city. Mahomed Jan has made overtures, and purposes, we hear, writing to our authorities to announce the possibility, under certain conditions, of his adhesion to the rule of Abdurrahman as Ameer. But Abdurrahman is as reticent as was General Monk at the time before Charles II.'s restoration, and although he is marching towards the capital he is taking a long time on the road. Should we withdraw our troops from Cabul as soon as we have sanctioned the proclamation of the new Ameer? Most of us, as you must know, are anxious to get away, but the time is not yet come for the abandonment of this place; nor should we, in justice to the friendly portion of the population, leave them to rapine and plunder as once before we did. However, as we hear rumours of orders to the Engineers to undermine the forts and other defences we built around the city, we must assume that orders of some sort have been given from home. Letters at the same time come to us from Kandahar and the West which cause no inconsiderable excitement here, and it is more than whispered that Ayub Khan, with banner and drum, is already on the march from Herat to the Durani capital. If this be true, and we retire from here, we shall have the whole country once more in arms against us, and all our work will have to be done over again. Even these vague rumours of Ayub's advance have made the people here assume an insolent and defiant attitude. To make matters worse,

in case of a march with any large force from Cabul, provisions and forage are becoming very scarce, so we should have infinite difficulty in providing supplies, and much more in carrying them.

KANDAHAR‘GUP,' ABDURRAHMAN, AND AYUB.

Kandahar, July 3.

LITTLE did I imagine, when, in a somewhat idle hour and mood, I sat upon a stool in front of my comfortable tent, and called to my faithful native for 'brandy pawnee,' and my pens, ink, and paper, to send you home the short but simple annals of the poor' English soldier, who does his sultry campaign in what they term at home the 'Gorgeous East,' that events would have so rapidly marched towards the dénouement of the present 'situation.' A celebrated English general officer, more renowned for a good seat in the saddle and a sonorous word of command than for writing in the Addisonian style, once immortalised himself in his comments upon a court-martial by observing that 'the president of the said tribunal had seemed to have lulled himself in a conviction.' Here we who are in a measure behind the scenes, and who, I may at once allow, neither take too pessimist nor too favourable a view of our present status quo, are unwillingly impelled to the strong belief that a third campaign is upon the eve of commencement. The parade of Burrows' small brigade, less than 2500 men, of which I gave you a description in my last, the denuding of our already attenuated garrison in this to my mind most important of our frontier bastions against

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