Goss then opened them one by one, our troops entered, and the
victorious standard of my country floated on the walls of Allyghur!

When the General, accompanied by his staff, entered the last line
of fortifications, the brave old man raised me from the dead
rhinoceros on which I was seated, and pressed me to his breast.
But the excitement which had borne me through the fatigues and
perils of that fearful day failed all of a sudden, and I wept like
a child upon his shoulder.

Promotion, in our army, goes unluckily by seniority; nor is it in
the power of the General-in-Chief to advance a Caesar, if he finds
him in the capacity of a subaltern: MY reward for the above
exploit was, therefore, not very rich. His Excellency had a
favourite horn snuff-box (for, though exalted in station, he was in
his habits most simple): of this, and about a quarter of an ounce
of high-dried Welsh, which he always took, he made me a present,
saying, in front of the line, "Accept this, Mr. Gahagan, as a token
of respect from the first to the bravest officer in the army."

Calculating the snuff to be worth a halfpenny, I should say that
fourpence was about the value of this gift: but it has at least
this good effect--it serves to convince any person who doubts my
story, that the facts of it are really true. I have left it at the
office of my publisher, along with the extract from the Bengal
Hurkaru, and anybody may examine both by applying in the counting-
house of Mr. Cunningham. {3} That once popular expression, or
proverb, "Are you up to snuff?" arose out of the above
circumstance; for the officers of my corps, none of whom, except
myself, had ventured on the storming party, used to twit me about