The fever was not unto death, as the reader (if there be such a person) will doubtless have concluded by the continuance of my narrative, and therefore as I cannot hope to excite much sympathy for my sufferings, or doubt as to the result, I had better recover at once, especially as that will occupy but a few words in the present instance, though it took me five weeks at that time. I had scarcely recovered my strength after this attack, when news of a most warlike character arrived from the lower regions, inducing me to start immediately to rejoin my regiment, which it was rumoured was about to proceed immediately on active service. I reached Merut after two days' journey, and found all minds intent upon the approaching campaign in Scinde and Affghanistan. I had not been many days in cantonments, before conjecture was changed to certainty, by the arrival of despatches from head-quarters, ordering my regiment to form part of the army destined to assemble at Ferozepore on the Sutlej, about the latter end of November. All now was bustle and business in our previously quiet cantonment. The furnace in the armourer's forge glowed with as much assiduity, and more brilliancy, doubtless, than that of yore at the shrine of the incomprehensible Vesta. On every side were heard the clicking of carbine and pistol locks; swords and lance-points sent sparkles of fire from countless grindstones, and above all other sounds rose the tumultuous din of the anvils. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 7: The peak of Dwalagiri exceeds 27,000 feet.] [Footnote 8: I hear that botanists deny the unity of the genus.] [Footnote 9: The tehr is a mountain goat.] [Footnote 10: Bara singh--twelve horns.] CHAPTER III. MATTERS RELATING TO THE AFGHANS--MARCH THROUGH DELHI TO FEROZEPORE--RUNJEET'S INTERVIEW--MARCH TOWARDS BUHAWULPORE. The circumstances on the north-western frontier, and beyond it, which caused these warlike preparations, were nearly as follow:-- The fortress of Herat, which formed the frontier bulwark of the kingdom of Caubul, but which was now in possession of Prince Kamran, (son of Mahmood, a deposed monarch of Afghanistan,) had been for some time invested by a large Persian force, instigated, it was imagined, by Russian influence. As this fortress opens a free ingress to the countries on our north-western frontier, the government of India felt particularly sensitive on its account, and suddenly commiserating its forlorn condition, seized the present opportunity and pretext for advancing to its relief. Shah Soojah Ool Moolk, having been deposed from the throne of Caubul, after the battle of Neemla, in 1809, had for many years been residing at Loodianah as a pensioner of the East India Company. At this juncture, the government of India, pitying the kingdomless state of that able monarch, resolved to reseat him on the throne, and thereby, and, in the accomplishment of that purpose, to further the following objects.