'at last a prospect of returning rest, and brief regular periods of study:' with the results of which diary and commonplace book speedily run over. The summer passes, and he contemplates furlough. He has been thirteen years in India, and incessant labour is telling on him. Ghazní falls; honours are recommended for Keane, Macnaghten, Pottinger, Wade, Sale, Thomson. Keane writes from Kábul that 'the feeling towards Sháh Shujá is not yet of a warm nature;' Cotton, that 'the people of Kábul and its vicinity are much gratified by the change of rulers. But the Afgháns are a violent and treacherous people, and the Envoy has his work cut out for him.' On October 30 the Private Secretary leaves Simla; and at Agra in the end of December, 1839, resolves to take furlough. Lord Auckland had decided to remain up country at Agra throughout 1840, and to administer the North-West, Mr. Robertson having declined the Lieutenant-Governorship. Suddenly all is changed. Events in China compel Lord Auckland's presence in Calcutta; Mr. Robertson under pressure changes his mind, and takes the North-West; the Governor-General hurries down, and his Private Secretary decides to stay on with his master.
He was to remain in Calcutta till March, 1842. The latter months of his residence were to be clouded by disasters in Kabul, by the murder of his friend Macnaghten, and by the distress of the Governor-General, with whom, in defeat as in success, he had passionately identified himself. This is not, it has been said,
