Had the head constable of Agra been present, he would have been sorely puzzled. That functionary was on duty one evening at the Taj, when the Governor-General, Earl Mayo, gave a fête, with kind hospitality, to the residents at Agra. Several uninvited guests had tried to enter the precincts of Viceroyalty on a former occasion, and a police officer, by order of the civil authorities, determined that these intruders should not force their way again into a private party given by the Governor-General. ‘How shall I know the guests of his lordship?’ asked the anxious constable. ‘Allow no one to enter who is not dressed in uniform or in evening costume, like Mr. T----,’ replied the police officer, pointing to the officiating collector, a tall, handsome man, dressed as an English gentleman. In the evening we were all assembled in the garden near the gate, where a sound of voices in altercation was heard at the entrance. The police officer proceeded to inquire into the disturbance, and found, to his dismay and our delight, that Mr. A----, one of the leading swells in Lord Mayo’s suite, had been stopped because he had a coat differing very much from Mr. T----; in fact, a political costume. The weather was so fine and warm that we decided on pitching our camp not very far from our rickety bungalow. The site where our tents were placed was on a green knoll, on whose flat surface our whole encampment found ample room. There were trees dotted all round us, and a straight path led down to the river, where we usually embarked. For a day or two after our change of quarters the sun shone brightly, and there was a balmy breeze blowing; but it came on to rain suddenly, and never stopped doing so for thirty-six hours. Our tents were thoroughly waterproof, but to say the best of it we found our space rather confined, and the time hang somewhat heavily on our hands. My wife was sitting in the verandah of our tent, and I was not far off smoking a cigar. For some time I had observed the water round a tree gradually rising, and in a lazy kind of manner kept watching it growing deeper and deeper, and felt very pleased that we had pitched our camp on the green knoll, and not in the grass field below us. All of a sudden a native _employé_ of the Maharajah came running from the landing-stage. ‘To the boats, sahib--to the boats! The Maharajah has sent three--the river is rising.’