“Gentlemen, fill your glasses! Church and King! and after that what you will. Pass the bottle, Belfield; fill up a bumper; come, a brimmer; no daylight, sir; none of your Whiggery here; I thought you had left all that off?” “I’ll drink anything you please, colonel; but I fear our politics are wider apart than ever.” “You’re not becoming a follower of that rascal Tom Paine, are you? I know you used to dabble in all sorts of books, and were but a few degrees off it—a republican, irreligious scoundrel—gone to the d——l, I hope, as he deserves—a fellow that had no respect for royalty, and would have upset, if he could, our holy religion, an infernal villain!” “Why, you are warm, colonel,” observed a middle-aged officer; “may I ask when you took so keenly to politics?” “Yes, you may ask,” said Bluff; “but it depends upon me whether I answer you—haw! haw! Come, fill your glass and pass the bottle, and don’t ask questions—haw! haw! haw!” Never did I see so rough a specimen of humanity. How he talked, laughed, thumped the table, and laid down the law, in the exercise of his unenviable immunity! An incident occurred after dinner, which displayed in a strong light the violence of Bluff’s character, especially towards the natives, and his perfect disregard of the feelings of his company. As the bottles were placed before him by the apdar, or butler, a very respectable-looking bearded Mahomedan, something in their arrangement displeased our host, who, pointing with his forefinger to one of them, exclaimed, “_Yee kea ky?_” (what is this?) The unfortunate domestic bent forward his head, though evidently in fear, to scrutinize the damage, when he received a back-handed blow in the mouth from the colonel, which rung through the room, and sent him staggering backwards, _minus_ his turban, which had fallen from the shock. The man—I shall never forget it—stooped and picked up his turban; replaced it on his noble-looking head—his face was livid from a sense of the insult; he put his hand to his mouth, and looked at it, there was blood upon it. The company appeared and were disgusted; even Bluff, I thought, seemed ashamed of himself. Well it is that these things are becoming rare! But enough of the colonel, of whom this sketch may give as good an idea as a more elaborate description. Of such characters there were a few, and but a few, in the Indian army, and it is to be hoped their number is fast diminishing. CHAPTER XXI. We remained the following day, and accompanied the colonel, and one or two of his officers, to a grand entertainment, given by the Nawaub of Bengal, at his palace of Moorshedabad, in honour of the festival of the _Baira_. The whole station had, I believe, received invitations, through the Governor-General’s agent at the court of his highness, and a grand spectacle was expected.