"Every man is born a soldier, I was about to add, and even every boy--a pestilent set of wasps they are--has his knife, and knows how to use it; and they are all taught, that if these black rock and yonder snow-capped hills have little attraction for them here below, the Moollahs add that heaven teems with Houris, and that their reward is there. Talking of Houris, we shall all meet at the Trecarrels to-morrow, I hope; but I shan't see you till I come off Ghazeea hunting; and, by Jove! I would rather go pig-sticking in the jungle, or tiger-potting on a Shikaree elephant, than have a day's shooting against those mad fanatics. However, you'll see the Envoy about what we have heard." "Of course, Jack." And whistling a popular waltz, with his sword under his arm, and his forage cap very much over the right ear, Jack Polwhele strode away to Burgoyne's bungalow in the Cantonments, just as the boom of a gun from the nearest fort, and the clang of the guard-house ghurries announced the setting of the sun. Waller and Denzil sought the Envoy at the Residency; but, unfortunately, he was on a visit to the Shah at the Bala Hissar; thus a most precious opportunity was too probably lost. We shall neither follow Polwhele to his consultation with Burgoyne about their future movements, nor to their adventures among the cavernous range of the Siah Sung Hills; but in the subsequent chapter shall endeavour to relate on what errand our troops, some four thousand three hundred in number, had come into that remote, ferocious, and most warlike region of all North-western India, seeking to control the views and the passions of five million one hundred and twenty thousand hostile people. CHAPTER IV. WHAT TOOK US THERE. The kings of Cabul in relation to their people somewhat resembled those of the House of Stuart when on the Scottish throne; being only the khans of a warlike tribe, among many other khans and tribes; hence the old Celtic term for the king of Scotland is simply the "chief of chiefs." The resemblance to Scotland in the days of old, is still further carried out in the fact that Cabul was a mere amalgamation of petty republics, or clans, having at their head a king, whose influence was felt in the capital, but whose authority failed to reach the fierce dwellers in the glens and on the mountains. After witnessing many civil wars, crimes and outrages, Shah Mahmud died, and was succeeded on the throne of Herat and Afghanistan, by his son Kamran.