The Armenian went on with the servants to find the place where the “Quartermaster” had given orders for my tent to be pitched. As I sat alone by the stream several people, whom I knew, went by and saluted. After about an hour, one of the servants came back to conduct me to the tent. We descended the embankment, and rode down a lane leading to the river. My tent was in an orchard on the other side. The river was rather wide but shallow, and we forded it on our horses. We got into the orchard by scrambling through a gap in the wall. I found there were other tents besides mine in the orchard, and some horses were endeavouring to graze. The Armenian ordered the horses out and the other tents to be moved further away. My tent was put up on a mound about six feet high, and I went in and sat on the carpet. It was stifling after the breezy hill. The trees and high walls of the orchard kept off the breeze without sheltering my tent from the sun. There was no view, except of dusty leaves and brown earth--the grass was withered. I was tired, thirsty, and hungry; there was nothing to drink or eat, and I had no tobacco. I growled at everybody who came within reach; and the ants crawled down my neck and up my sleeve, and black grasshoppers jumped in my face and walked up my back. As soon as the cook arrived, which was some time afterwards, he hurried off to the bazaar. He came back in about half an hour with two teapots full of tea: I gulped down ten or eleven cupfuls, and then made an enjoyable meal off some cold mutton that the cook fished out of the baggage; after that I unearthed a cigar from one of the trunks, and felt more at peace with the world; for the crawling creatures did not sting, though they were disagreeable. These are the ordinary everyday incidents of a march. As a rule one does not find the opportunity to write them down, and they are forgotten the next day. I, however, happened to write a letter home that evening and I have just copied it. There was no meat to be obtained in the bazaar, and I gave the Armenian four shillings to buy a sheep; for although my meals came from His Highness’s kitchen, those of the servants and the Armenian did not. [Illustration] CHAPTER XXI. THE ARRIVAL IN KABUL.