clover, in such profusion that the air was impregnated with its
agreeable perfume, to a small fort called Oorghundee, remarkable
chiefly for being the head-quarters of the oft-mentioned thieves, of
whom I daresay the reader is as tired as we were after the mere dread
they inspired had caused us to pass two sleepless nights. But we were
now determined to assume a high tone, and summoning the chief of the
fort, or, in other words, the biggest villain, into our presence,
we declared that in the event of our losing a single article of our
property or being annoyed by a night attack, we would retaliate in the
morning by cutting the surrounding crops and setting fire to the fort!

The military reader, especially if conversant with some of the
peculiarities of eastern discipline, will question how far we should
have been justified in carrying our threats into execution. I can
assure him we had no such intention; but be that as it may, our
threats had the desired effect, and at length we enjoyed an
uninterrupted night's rest.

On the morning of the 16th we proceeded to Koteah Shroof, the whole
distance being about ten miles: but the first three brought us to the
extremity of the beautiful valley through which we had been travelling
ever since we left Cabul. The aspect of the country in the immediate
vicinity of our path has been well described by one of the most
lamented victims to Affghan ingratitude and treachery. "If the reader
can imagine," writes Sir Alexander Burnes, "a plain about twenty
miles in circumference, laid out with gardens and fields in pleasing
irregularity, intersected by three rivulets which wind through it by
a serpentine course, and dotted with innumerable little forts and
villages, he will have before him one of the meadows of Cabul." To
complete the picture the reader must conceive the grey barren hills,