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. I.
"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.
PREFACE.
To have entered, more fully than I have done,into the events and fighting prior to the Retreatfrom Cabul, would have proved unsuitable for thepurpose of my story, and for these events I mustrefer the reader to history or the newspapers of thetime.
An officer of the Queen's 44th Regiment escapeddeath in the Khyber Pass in the mode narrated inits place, by wrapping the regimental colour roundhim; and strange and varied as the adventures ofCaptain Waller may appear, after the last fatal standwas made by our troops, some such incidents actuallyoccurred to a Havildar of the Shah's GhoorkaRegiment, after its complete destruction in Afghanistan,so there is much that is real woven up withmy story.
Fiction, according to Sir Francis Bacon, infusesin literature that which history denies, and in somemeasure satisfies the mind with shadows, when itcannot enjoy the substance—the shadows of an idealworld. "Art is long and life is short, so we dowisely to live in as many worlds as we can."
25, TAVISTOCK ROAD, WESTBOURNE PARK,
August, 1871.
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
I.—THE TIME WILL COME
II.—RHOSCADZHEL
III.—THE ALARM BELL
IV.—POWDERED WITH TEARS
V.—PORTHELLICK VILLA
VI.—RICHARD'S MYSTERY
VII.—LADY LAMORNA
VIII.—THE BROKEN CIRCLE
IX.—FOREBODINGS
X.—THE LONELY TARN
XI.—CONCERNING FLIRTATION
XII.—THE PIXIES' HOLE
XIII.—THE TIDE IN!
XIV.—LOST
XV.—THE SEARCH
XVI.—INTELLIGENCE AT LAST
XVII.—THE TRECARRELS
XVIII.—HE LOVES ME TRULY
XIX.—THE GREATER SORROW
XX.—A FAMILY GROUP
XXI.—HUMILIATION
XXII.—"MRS. GRUNDY"
XXIII.—A LEGAL "FRIEND"
XXIV.—THE DOCTRINE OF CHANCES
XXV.—MISCONCEPTION
XXVI.—REVERSES
XXVII.—ALONE!