bond tale so fathered. But as it has passed into circulation with Sir John Kaye's book, a word may be devoted to it.
Captain Burnes, it is alleged, told Mr. Masson that the expedition across the Indus 'had been arranged before he reached Simla,' and 'that when he arrived Torrens and Colvin came running to him, and prayed him to say nothing to unsettle his lordship; that they had all the trouble in the world to get him into the business, and that even now he would be glad to retire from it.'
Now, apart from what has been shown in these pages to have been the actual course of events, the expedition across the Indus had not been arranged before Captain Burnes reached Simla, because we have it on Lord Auckland's authority that, till he saw Mr. Macnaghten (who, as Sir John Kaye says, did not reach Simla before Captain Burnes), he would settle nothing. We know that, rightly or wrongly, little store was set by Lord Auckland on Captain Burnes' judgment. Dr. Buist's book, with its disparaging remark on Mr. Masson, was before Sir John Kaye when he wrote; for he refers to Dr. Buist in the preface to his first edition. Sir John Kaye himself will not vouch for the story. Yet, gross as the calumny must be, if the story is proved untrue, he does not hesitate to reproduce it. Mr. Torrens gave it prompt contradiction. Mr. Colvin, to his last hour, never opened his lips on any one matter which had passed through his hands while he held the post of Private
