[Footnote 3:  I allude to the Parsis, who came from Persia, and whose religion and customs are as distinct from those of the Natives of India as are our own.]

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CHAPTER XXXII. 1858-1859

Home again—­Back in India—­Allahabad and Cawnpore —­The Viceroy’s camp—­State entry into Lucknow —­The Talukdars of Oudh—­Loyalty of the Talukdars —­Cawnpore and Fatehgarh—­The Agra Durbar

I travelled home via Corfu, Trieste, Venice, and Switzerland, arriving in England towards the end of June.  The intense delight of getting ‘home’ after one’s first term of exile can hardly be exaggerated, and certainly cannot be realized, save by those who have gone through the exile, and been separated, as I had been for years, from all that made the happiness of my early life.  Every English tree and flower one comes across on first landing is a distinct and lively pleasure, while the greenness and freshness are a delicious rest to the eye, wearied with the deadly whitey-brown sameness of dried-up sandy plains, or the all-too gorgeous colouring of eastern cities and pageants.

My people were living in Ireland, in the county of Waterford, so after only a short sojourn in London, for the very necessary re-equipment of the outer man, I hastened over there.  I found my father well and strong for a man of seventy-four, and to all appearance quite recovered from the effects of his fifty years of Indian service, and, to my great joy, my mother was looking almost as young, and quite as beautiful, as I had left her six years before.  My little sister, too, always an invalid, was very much as when I had parted from her—­full of loving-kindness for everyone, and, though unable to move without help, perfectly happy in the many resources she had within herself, and the good she was able to do in devoting those resources to the benefit of others.

There, too, I found my fate, in the shape of Nora Bews, a young lady living with a married sister not far from my father’s place, who a few months later consented to accompany me on my return to India.  The greater part of my leave was, therefore, spent in Ireland.

During the winter months I hunted with the Curraghmore hounds, and was out with them the day before Lord Waterford was killed.  We had no run, and at the end of the day, when wishing us good-bye, he said:  ’I hope, gentlemen, we shall have better luck next time.’  ‘Next time’ there was ‘better luck’ as regarded the hunting, but the worst of all possible luck for Lord Waterford’s numerous friends; in returning home after a good run, and having killed two foxes, his horse stumbled over quite a small ditch, throwing his rider on his head; the spinal cord was snapped and the fine sportsman breathed his last in a few moments.

I was married on the 17th May, 1859, in the parish church of Waterford.  While on our wedding tour in Scotland, I received a command to be present on the 8th June at Buckingham Palace, when the Queen proposed to honour the recipients of the Victoria Cross by presenting the decoration with Her Majesty’s own hands.