CHAPTER VI.
The mutineers having vanished, we turned our faces to the westward, and marched by comparatively easy stages through Tirhoot; and as we journeyed on from day to day in this district, we found it more attractive in pleasant scenery than any we had yet traversed. True, the general aspect of the landscape was monotonous; but where, it may be asked, on the plains of Upper India is the landscape not monotonous? You might travel thousands of miles, and yet the boundless plains, with almost unvarying rural features, would meet your gaze everywhere. You might look in every direction for miles and miles along the scene for some rare or novel object to break the interminable monotony of the vast outstretching country, but you would look in vain. Whichever way you may twist or turn, the clustering villages of the peasantry; the hamlet homestead, with its sugar or oil mills; the irrigation wells dotting the fields; the evergreen groves (topes) of mango, tamarind, and other fruit, or ordinary tropical trees; the ruined buildings of ancient times; the Hindii or Mahomedan temples or mosques; now and again rivers, or cities, or towns, or relics of bygone ages, mingle in the picture; and so on and on, miles
