advanced respectfully to the carriage, and, taking out the horses, they supplied the place of these animals, and, in spite of all remonstrance, insisted on drawing the carriage, which contained their beloved commander and his wife. The privates formed in sections before and after the carriage, the officers were on each side, and the cortége moved on: not a word was spoken, for affection was evinced far beyond anything that words can express. When they had proceeded a mile from the barracks, the horses were attached to the carriage; the soldiers formed on each side of the road; each officer once again pressed silently the hand of his late Colonel; the privates stood at attention; and the carriage moved slowly between the ranks of affectionate soldiers. Many a tear was shed: and who shall deny the grandeur of this silent tribute to the worth and assiduity of a good man!

It may be mentioned that the officers resolved to present their Colonel with a breakfast-set of plate; but Colonel Mountain refused this token, most kindly, but most resolutely. The object of the regiment was, however, attained; the plate was sent out to India a year and a half later, with Mrs. Mountain's name added to her husband's; and thus presented, it could not be refused.

CHAPTER X.

IN October, 1847, Colonel and Mrs. Mountain left England for India. He had determined to spend a fortnight in Egypt, and hoped, by proceeding from Suez in the next steamer, to reach Calcutta before Lord Dalhousie's arrival.

The French mail having been detained, gave the passengers of the "Sultan" three days to spend at Malta; and here Colonel Mountain made acquaintance with Sir Charles Napier, who was afterwards to be his immediate chief, and who was then returning from Scinde.

After two days spent at Alexandria, Colonel Mountain proceeded to Cairo, and there remained for a fortnight, visiting all that was worth seeing in the town and neighbourhood. This was a time of great enjoyment, and, through the kindness of the English and French consuls, he gained greater insight into native life in Cairo than is usually granted to strangers.

One interesting visit that he and his wife paid was to the house of a Syrian gentleman. After entering a court, into which the windows of the house opened, and going up various stairs, the visitors were shown

into an ante-room, where the gentleman and his wife met them, and conducted them into a saloon paved with marble and surrounded by divans. The two ladies sat down together on the low cushions, while the gentlemen were honoured with European chairs. Pipes were brought in, for every one; but as they perceived that the English lady did not smoke, but only held the pipe in her hand, she was courteously requested to lay it aside, and the hostess did so likewise. The Levantine lady was a young and rather pretty girl, dressed in full trowsers and a tunic, over which, when she left the house, she threw a long pink cloak, which entirely covered her; and a strip of thick white muslin, with interstices for the eyes, concealed her face. Her greatest interest seemed to be excited by the wedding-ring of her guest. She could not understand why such a simple ornament should be used when the lady had prettier rings, and, untwisting the end of the scarf that formed her girdle, she showed triumphantly a diamond ring as her spousal band. Soon after, a very interesting and pretty old lady glided into the room. She was the host's mother. No one paid the least attention to her; but Colonel Mountain, yielding to the impulse of his feeling for a woman and his reverence for old age, started up and brought her a seat, to the utter amazement of the gentleman, and not less so of the little old lady. Then tiny cups of coffee, flavoured with amber were brought in, and afterwards a tray containing small spoons, with a piece of com

fiture which tasted of violets on each; and the visit was at an end: but an invitation was given to go the next day to a private garden outside the town, where the lady appeared carefully veiled.

The following account of his stay in Egypt is taken from a letter written by Colonel Mountain to his friend Colonel Angerstein :

"Alexandria has none of its pristine magnificence, and has now a mixed character between European and Asiatic; but my wife was exceedingly struck and delighted. Her ride on a donkey through the streets from the shore to the Hotel, through which long strings of camels, Oriental horsemen, shrouded women, and pedestrians in Greek or Egyptian costume are always passing, much excited her. The French have induced Mehemet Ali to throw extensive modern fortifications round the place, into which no doubt, on the first rupture, they would, if we did not keep a sharp look out at sea, throw 10,000 or 15,000 men from Algiers. Nothing interested me so much at Alexandria as what is called Cæsar's camp, the remains of a Roman fortress near the spot where Abercrombie fell, about ten miles in front of the Rosetta gate.

"The Pacha is now commencing the great work said to have been projected by Napoleon; that is, the attempt to carry bridges with sluice gates over both branches of the Nile. Vast mounds of material have been collected on either shore, thousands of people are employed, and the head of the Delta is already faced with stone. The object is to have the power of maintaining a higher level of the river when the annual inundation subsides. If these vast sluice gates should be

sufficiently solid to withstand the force of the stream, the benefit will be great; but this is the risk. We were thirteen days at Cairo, and I never enjoyed a holiday more in my life. The climate at this season is perfectly delicious, and the place the most amusing for a fortnight's sojourn that I know.

"There are many interesting excursions to be made, and ample sources of interest and amusement in the town itself. I went this morning, after arrival, to wait on the Pacha at Shoobza with Murray, and finding that I had my wife with me, the old man asked me to bring her to breakfast the next morning-and we went. He was playing at billiards when we arrived, but instantly led the way to a divan and placed my wife beside him, Murray and I sitting next her. After breakfast, pipes and coffee were brought, I smiled to see Mrs. Mountain with a long pipe in one hand, and a beautiful little frame of gold filigree in the other, containing a very small coffee cup. On her observing that English ladies did not smoke, His Highness ordered the pipe away. He was very good humoured and talkative, and is quite a gentleman in his manners, but as he does not speak a syllable of any language but Turkish, everything passed through a somewhat indifferent interpreter. Some days afterwards Mrs. Mountain went with Madame Barraud, the wife of the French consul-general, by His Highness's special invitation, to breakfast with his eldest and favourite daughter, the widow of Defterdaz Bey. On this occasion Mrs. Mountain had to eat with her fingers, and take and seem to smoke eighteen pipes one after another, as it would have been a breach of etiquette to decline. She describes the scene as the most gorgeous imaginable. The Princess was not very gaudily attired herself, but