Narrative of the Late Victorious Campaigns in Affghanistan: Under General Pollock; with Recollections of Seven Years' Service in India

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H. Colburn, 1844 - Afghan Wars - 360 pages

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Page 324 - When that this body did contain a spirit, A kingdom for it was too small a bound; But now two paces of the vilest earth Is room enough.
Page 176 - A soldier of the same corps, happening to pass by the same spot some time after, saw a Khaibari boy, apparently about six years of age, with a large knife which his puny arm had scarcely sufficient strength to wield, engaged in an attempt to hack off the head of the dead sergeant. The young urchin...
Page 293 - ... beggars the powers of our language to express any adequate idea of its appearance. An officer who was an eye-witness attempts a description of it :— '' It was a scaffolding of bamboos, resembling a gigantic gallows, and covered with streamers of the same colours as the boats, and of the same materials. Under this arch, as they called it, the whole army marched, and peals of merriment as they did so burst from the soldiers, — it was such an absolute caricature of anything triumphal.
Page 23 - ... immediately put over-board. In the scuffle which took place, every one striving to get a good position, down dropped the spectacles from his nose ; the shark seized the glittering prize, and, as if satisfied with his acquisition, retired under the counter refusing the most tempting baits that were offered him during the day. Towards evening a breeze sprung up, and away they went at nine or ten knots an hour. The nervous man was now in the situation which his morbid fancy had so often presented...
Page 23 - In fact, he would be afraid to venture on deck, being certain to walk overboard, or fall down the companion-ladder ; and how he should ever get into the boat which was to take him on shore, when the ship arrived at her destination, he knew not. One day they were becalmed near the line, and a large shark was seen by the officer on watch just under the stern. All the passengers, our near-sighted friend among them, rushed aft to see the monster taken, a baited hook having been immediately put over-board....
Page 22 - ... dolphin, as he played under the bows ; a good deal of fun took place in overhauling the locker of the foremost fish, as the sailors call searching out what he has in his stomach. We found all sorts of odd things that had been dropped from the ship days before. I heard a story which is curious, and not unlikely. The narrator once sailed on board a ship, he said, in which there was a very nearsighted passenger who always wore a pair of gold spectacles. He had forgotten to provide himself with a...
Page 252 - ... Collier and Captain Hopkins, Lieutenant Bird and two doctors, Harpur and Brydon, were still travelling onwards. Brydon's own horse had been shot under him and he owed his survival to the self-sacrifice of a veteran subadar, who insisted on giving his own horse to the doctor, with the words, "Sahib, my hour has come; I am wounded to death, and can ride no longer. You, however, still have a chance ; take my horse, which is now useless to me, and God send you may get into Jalalabad in...
Page 243 - The fire burned," writes Lieutenant Greenwood, "during the whole time we remained encamped in the vicinity, and we still saw it when entering the Khoord Cabul Pass on our return.
Page 24 - ... perfect calm at sea crept over the minds of every one on board. One of the midshipmen, who had gone aloft to see if he could descry a sail or anything else on the vast expanse of water, on which they lay like a log, sang out, that a shark was close to the vessel. Again everybody was on the qui vive, a hook was soon baited and thrown over, and this time greedily snatched at by John Shark. He was soon hauled on board, and the business of searching his locker commenced with the usual curiosity....
Page 242 - After we had been at Cabul about a fortnight, a force of four companies of the 31st regiment, and of some detachments from the different native corps, was ordered one evening to be in readiness to march on the following morning into the city. The object was not stated, but we could form a pretty good idea of what we were to do, and the result proved that our expectations were correct. We proceeded the next morning, and blew up all the principal chokes and bazaars where Sir W.

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