[Illustration:  MAP OF CENTRAL ASIA (THE RUSSIAN FRONTIERS).]

We hastened back to Madras, and reached Ootacamund after seven consecutive nights in the train, with a thermometer at 104 deg. in the daytime, the only pause in our journey being at Poona, where we spent a few hours with our friend General Sir John Ross.

I left my horses at Lahore, and for some weeks lived in daily expectation of being ordered back to the Punjab to take command of the 1st Army Corps.  A change of Government, however, took place just in time to prevent the war.  Lord Salisbury’s determined attitude convinced Russia that no further encroachments on the Afghan frontier would be permitted; she ceased the ‘game of brag’ she had been allowed to play, and the Boundary Commission were enabled to proceed with the work of delimitation.

[Footnote 1:  A Native corruption of the word ‘English.’]

* * * * *

CHAPTER LXV. 1885-1886

The Burma expedition—­The Camp of Exercise at Delhi —­Defence of the North-West Frontier—­Quetta and Peshawar —­Communications versus fortifications—­Sir George Chesney

We only remained three months at ‘Ooty,’ for on the 8th July a telegram arrived from Lord Dufferin announcing the Queen’s approval of my being appointed to succeed Sir Donald Stewart as Commander-in-Chief in India, and granting me leave to visit England before taking up the appointment.

At the end of a fortnight all our preparations for departure had been made, and on the 18th August we left Bombay, in the teeth of the monsoon.

Our boy, whose holidays had just commenced, met us at Venice, and we loitered in Italy and Switzerland on our way home.  I spent but six weeks in England, returning to the East at the end of November, to join my new command.  I met Lord Dufferin at Agra, and accompanied him to Gwalior, whither his Excellency went for the purpose of formally restoring to the Maharaja Sindhia the much coveted fortress of Gwalior, which had been occupied by us since 1858—­an act of sound policy, enabling us to withdraw a brigade which could be far more usefully employed elsewhere.

At Gwalior we received the news of the capture of Mandalay, and I sent a telegram to Lieutenant-General Prendergast,[1] to congratulate him on the successful conduct of the Burma Expedition.

Affairs in Burma had been going from bad to worse from the time King Thebaw came to the throne in 1878.  Wholesale murders were of constant occurrence within the precincts of the palace; dacoity was rife throughout the country, and British officers were insulted to such an extent that the Resident had to be withdrawn.  In 1883 a special Mission was sent by the King of Burma to Paris, with a view to making such a treaty with the French Government as would enable him to appeal to France for assistance, in the event of his being