ONLY AN ENSIGN A Tale of the Retreat from Cabul. BY JAMES GRANT, AUTHOR OF "THE ROMANCE OF WAR," "FIRST LOVE AND LAST LOVE," "LADY WEDDERBURN'S WISH," ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. "Come what come may, Time and the Hour runs through the roughest day."--_Macbeth._ LONDON: TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE ST., STRAND. 1871. [_All Rights Reserved._] LONDON: BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. CONTENTS. CHAP. I.--BEYOND THE LAND OF THE SUN II.--IN THE AFGHAN FORT III.--THE WARNING IV.--WHAT TOOK US THERE V.--TIFFIN WITH THE TRECARRELS VI.--THE APPOINTMENT VII.--"THE BAND PLAYS AT TWO" VIII.--THE DRIVE IX.--ADVENTURE IN CABUL X.--THE MOSQUE OF BABER XI.--"_Only an Ensign_" XII.--ASSASSINATION XIII.--HOME IN THE SPIRIT XIV.--IN THE FORTIFIED CAMP XV.--CHRISTMAS AT CABUL XVI.--THE MORNING OF THE RETREAT XVII.--THE HALT BY THE LOGHUR RIVER XVIII.--SPIRITED AWAY! XIX.--THE SKIRMISH XX.--IN THE KHYBER PASS XXI.--WALLER'S ADVENTURES XXII.--CHANCE BETTER THAN DESIGN XXIII.--DENZIL A NAWAB XXIV.--A MEETING XXV.--MARRIED OR NOT? XXVI--THE WANDERER XXVII.--THE LOST STEAMER ONLY AN ENSIGN. CHAPTER I. BEYOND THE LAND OF THE SUN. Far, far away from rough and rocky Cornwall--from steep Tintagel with all its memories of King Arthur's knights, his "Table Round" and flirting queen; from the traditionary haunts of its giant Tregeagle, and from its wondrous mines deep, deep down below even the blue waves of the Atlantic; far away beyond the Indus and the frontiers of British India, fifteen hundred miles from Calcutta, and seven hundred from the shores of the Arabian Gulf, we have to change the scene to where a British army, under General Elphinstone, was cantoned before the city of Cabul, ere we can look after the fortunes of Denzil Devereaux, of whom we have barely thought, while progressing through an entire volume of our story. A detachment of his regiment, under a captain named Waller, was attached to General's Trecarrel's Native Infantry Brigade; and an afternoon in November of the second year after the military occupation of the province by her Majesty's troops, found him quartered, with his brother officers, the aforesaid captain--popularly known as Bob Waller--a lieutenant named Jack Polwhele, also of the "Cornish Light Bobs," in one of the little native forts, of which a dozen or more lay scattered over the plain between the British cantonments and the bleak range of hills named Siah Sung, or "the Black Rocks."