The Magnificent Montez

to shorten the long miles that had to be traversed. Thus, when Lola and her spouse embarked from England in an East Indiaman, the voyage took nearly five

r her husband's regiment was in the Punjaub, and a peremptory message from the brigadier required him to rejoin as soon as possible. It was at Kurnaul (as it was then spelled) that Lola began her

or-General, hatched the foolish and ill-conceived policy which led to the first Afghan war. His idea (so far as he had one) was, with the help of Brown Bess and British bayo

mounted on an elephant (which she shared with the colonel's better half), and followed by a train of baggage camels and a pack of foxhounds complete, accompanied her husband to the frontier. The other ladies include

presence of the ladies of the family of a British Governor-General." Judging from a luscious account that Lola gives of a big durbar, to which all the officers and their wives were bidden, these strictures were not unjustifiable. Thus, after Lord Auckland ("in sky blue inexpressibles") and his host had delivered patriotic speeches (with florid allusions to the "British Raj," the "Sahib Log," and the "Great White Queen," and all the rest of it)

ut accepting them. With true Oriental politeness, and "without moving a muscle," he registered rapture at a "miscellaneous col

ays, "before which the Maharajah bent with the devotion of a preux chevalier was a full-le

secretary, the Hon. William Osborne, the

sent round twice a week in which you put down just what you require, and it is furnished at his expense. It costs him

took a quarter of an hour," says his sister, "to satisfy him about the Maharajah's health, and to ascertain that the roses had bloomed in the g

s); and, with the Afghans living to fight another day, a "success for British arms" was announced. Thereupon, the column returned to India, bands playing, elephants trumpeting a salute, and guns thundering a welcome. "The war," declared His Excellency (who had re

on the Khelat throne, so that business is finished." But it was not finished. It was only just beginning. "Within six months," says Edward Tho

big-wigs at headquarters, a number of "regrettable incidents" were officially admitted. As a result, a regiment of Light

, a bombastic memorandum, addressed "To all the Princ

ph from Afghanistan, and the despoiled tomb of Sultan Mahmood looks dow

ul war. You will yourselves with all honour transmit th

ts favour, that I may so use the power entrusted to my hands to advance your prosperity and ha

lain spoken Stocqueler, "the commonsense of the British community at large revolted. The ministers of religion protested against it as a most unpardonable homage to an idolatrous temple. Ridiculed by the Press of

m, bringing a hornets' nest about his own ears and leading to his recall. As a matter of fact, too, the gates which he held in such reverence