thirty-one, was fired by the Horse Artillery. At the same instant the opening bars of the National Anthem were heard as the bands struck up, the shrill pipes of the Highlanders ringing out above the din. The sight was a most impressive one, the sun lighting up the double line along which 4,000 bayonets sparkled, and throwing into bold relief the darker forms of men and horses where the cavalry were drawn up. In the background were the brown slopes of the Siah Sung Ridge, crowned by the white lines of tents which marked our camp, then almost deserted. Only a few spectators from the city clustered on the road from the Lahore Gate, and watched the spectacle, the mass of the people remaining sullenly within the walls. The smoke of the first three or four guns had not cleared off when the company of the 67th nearest the gate faced round, and followed by their band, marched into the Bala Hissar—the first British regiment that had entered its narrow streets since 1842. (It is worthy of record that the “quick-step” played by the 67th is the same as that of the ill-fated 44th Regiment, not a man of which escaped to tell the tale of the disastrous retreat from Cabul which Pollock avenged.) Following the band, General Roberts and his little train of mounted men rode into the fortress, and took their way through its narrow streets to the Amir’s garden under the walls of the Upper Bala Hissar. At either end of this garden, which is now merely a neglected wilderness, are two of the ordinary wooden native pavilions, the one to the south containing what is called the “Audience Chamber.” This is approached by a flight of dirty wooden stairs, and is about twenty feet above the ground-level. The chamber is quite open on the side facing the garden, so that a crowd below could be addressed from it, and it also gives a good view over the city, with its background of high hills. The room was soon filled with the gay uniforms of the General and his staff and such officers as were not on duty with their regiments, and then the Durbar began, the Cabul Sirdars crowding in at a signal, and pressing forward to make their salaams to their latest conqueror. It was intended that the Amir should have accompanied General Roberts into the Bala Hissar; but at the last moment he pleaded indisposition, and was excused.[15] His eldest son, the heir-apparent, was sent instead. He is a child of five or six years of age, with a monkeyish cast of face, which not even the glitter and colour of his _bizarre_ coat and hat, gorgeous in green and gold, could soften or render at all prepossessing. The youngest was of little account, being squeezed against the wooden framework of the pavilion by the greasy Sirdars, who could not control themselves in their eagerness to pay their respects. The General was not at all cordial in his reception of them; and it was not surprising, for a more servile or repulsive audience could not have been selected. Scarcely a face was