curl my hair in ten thousand little corkscrew ringlets, which waved
over my shoulders, and to get my moustaches well round to the
corners of my eyelids. I dressed in loose scarlet trousers and red
morocco boots, a scarlet jacket, and a shawl of the same colour
round my waist; a scarlet turban three feet high, and decorated
with a tuft of the scarlet feathers of the flamingo, formed my
head-dress, and I did not allow myself a single ornament, except a
small silver skull and cross-bones in front of my turban. Two
brace of pistols, a Malay creese, and a tulwar, sharp on both
sides, and very nearly six feet in length, completed this elegant
costume. My two flags were each surmounted with a real skull and
cross-bones, and ornamented one with a black, and the other with a
red beard (of enormous length, taken from men slain in battle by
me). On one flag were of course the arms of John Company; on the
other, an image of myself bestriding a prostrate elephant, with the
simple word 'GUJPUTI' written underneath in the Nagaree, Persian,
and Sanscrit characters. I rode my black horse, and looked, by the
immortal gods, like Mars. To me might be applied the words which
were written concerning handsome General Webb, in Marlborough's
time:-


"'To noble danger he conducts the way,
His great example all his troop obey,
Before the front the Major sternly rides,
With such an air as Mars to battle strides.
Propitious Heaven must sure a hero save
Like Paris handsome, and like Hector brave!'