Memoirs of General Sir Henry Dermot Daly ..

Preface

The criticisms and strictures upon leading- men and current policy, which appear in the extracts from Sir Henry Daly's correspondence and diaries, were frequently modified by him in the light of fuller information or subsequent events. They have been allowed to stand as interesting examples of the feeling of the

hour.

HUGH DALY.

The Residency, Indore, August 1905.

1907197

Chapter I

Parentage ; voyage to, and early days in, India ; first staff appointment ; Kaira ; early friends ; invalided ; return to Sind ; Sir Charles Napier ; a sketch of the three Lawrence brothers

Chapter II

Peaceful condition of the Punjab early in 1848 ; Multan affairs ; the outbreak ; voyage up the Indus ; the first siege of Multan ; general condition of the Punjab ; George Lawrence a prisoner ; defection of Sher Singh ; reinforcements from Bombay ; storm and capture of Multan ; burial of Agnew and Anderson . . . . . . 14

Chapter III

General course of the campaign ; battle of Gujerat ; pursuit of the Sikhs ; their surrender ; pursuit of the Afghans and occupation of Peshawar. Appointment of Sir C. Napier as Commander-in-Chief; offers of staff employ in Bombay and the Punjab ; decision for the latter . . . -53 viii CONTENTS

Chapter IV Raising Of The 1st Punjab Cavalry ( 1 849-52)

PAGE

Account of the corps ; sketch of some of the Native Officers ; expedition through the Kohat Pass under Sir C. Napier ; praise from the latter ; life at Peshawar ; friendship with Sir Colin Campbell ; return to Kohat ; inspection of the regiment ; visit to Murree ; Colonel Mansfield ; Miranzai Expedition ; Frontier affairs ; invalided . . .62

Chapter V

Journey to England ; Marriage ; Crimean War and chances of employment there ; return to India ; nomination to the Oudh Cavalry . . . . . . -95

Chapter VI Raising Of The 1st Oudh Irregular Cavalry

Lucknow ; Mrs Daly's journey there ; formation of the Corps ; Sekrora ; the Persian War ; Gaieties at Sekrora and retrospect on the fate of some of those present ; the outlaw Fazl Ali ; appointment to the Guides ; visit to Sir Henry Lawrence at Lucknow ; Agra . . . . . .107

Chapter VII

Journey to join the Guides. Outbreak of the Mutiny. Neville Chamberlain. Discussions at Rawal Pindi ; Sir John Lawrence ; Herbert Edwardes. March of the Guides. Arrival at Delhi ; Battye killed ; Daly severely wounded ; reinforcements ; conflicting intelligence ; intended assaults postponed ; death of Barnard, Reed succeeds ; Chamberlain

CONTENTS ix

PAOE wounded ; Reed invalided, Wilson succeeds ; letter from Havelock ; arrival of Nicholson ; news of Sir Henry Lawrence's death ; Najafgarh ; siege train arrives ; capture of Delhi ; loss of Nicholson ; Guides return to Mardan ; their casualties ; acknowledgments from Court of Directors 129

Chapter VIII

The general position ; summons to Lucknow ; capture of the city ; death of Hodson ; appointed to Hodson's Horse ; memorandum on the Corps ; Lucknow after the capture ; Napier ; operations at Moosabagh ; hopes for Sir John Lawrence as Governor-General ; Russell of the Times ; Chamberlain and Mansfield ; Hearsay's story . .186

Chapter IX Sir Hope Grant's Operations In Oudh, 1858-1859

Hope Grant ; action of Nawabgunge ; Sir Colin Campbell's peerage ; Outram and Oudh ; Mansfield ; march to Fyzabad ; question of army re-organisation and the future of the Company's officers ; passage of the Goomtee ; engagement on the Khandoo River ; the proclamation and amnesty ; Amethi ; passage of the Gogra ; Sekrora ; the Raja of Bulrampur ; the Naval Brigade ; pursuit in the Terai, capture of guns ; a scramble in Nepal ; fight near Tulsipur ; departure for England . . . . . .212

Chapter X Central India Horse And Gwalior, 1861-1869

Return to India ; appointment to the Central India Horse ; death of Lord Clyde ; Napier's recommendation of Daly for the good service pension ; entry into regular political employ as Political Agent at Gwalior ; relations with Scindia ; Scindia's administration ; Scindia's views on British rule. Appointment as Agent to the Governor-General in Central India ........ 252

CONTENTS CHAPTER XI

ADMINISTRATION OF CENTRAL INDIA, 1869-1881

PACE

Description of the Province and of its condition before Daly assumed charge; the famine of 1868-1870; relations of Political Officers with Native States ; Daly's methods of administration and objects ; annual progress as shown by Reports; assassination of Lord Mayo; the Rewa Chief; the Opium Trade ; Lord Northbrook's tour in Central India ; visit to India of the Prince of Wales ; the Imperial Assemblage at Delhi ; Daly's review of ten years ; officers who served under him ; his departure . . . 278

Chapter XII 1881-189$

The Daly College at Indore. Occupations in England. Master of Hounds. Twice contests Dundee. Receives the G.C.B. Osborne. Second Marriage. Queen Victoria Godmother to his youngest son. Illness and death. Character . 332

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

General Sir Henry Daly, G.C.B., CLE. (photogravure), Frontispiece Multan. Struggle in the Streets — Capture of two

Sikh Standards .... To face page 14

The Idgah, where Mr Vans Agnew and Lieutenant

Anderson were murdered . . . , 18 The 1st Bombay European Fusiliers Storming

the Breach at the Khooni Burj, Multan (Jan.

Native Officers of the 1st Punjab Cavalry. . „ 72

Lucknow . . . . . . „ no

Ram Singh, as a Dafadar in the 1st Punjab Cavalry „ 118 G. Lawrence, Colonel H. Edwardes, and Sir

Henry Lawrence (photogravure) . . ,,130

The Guide Burj, Peshawar ... „ 142

Tooleram, a Gourka in the Guide Corps . . 142

Map— Plan of Delhi . . . . „ 160

Entrance to the King's Palace in the City,

Sir Henry Daly ... . ,,224 Goona, C. I., Residence of Commandant, Central

India Horse ..... ;) 254

The Residency, Indore, 1870 ... n 256

Maharaja Sir Jayaji Rao Scindia, G.C.B. . . „ 274

Bhopal, from the Old Fort ... n 298

Hindoo Roo's House and Sirmoor Battalion, 1857 „ 304

The Daly College at Indore . . M 332

Bathing Ghats, Ujjain .... „ 340 Bust of Sir Henry Daly. (By Bates). Placed in

the Daly College, Indore, by His Highness

Maharaja Sir Madho Rao Scindia, G.C.S.I.,

The Lucknow Gates .... ?68

SIR HENRY DALY

Chapter I Early Life ( I 823- I 848)

Parentage ; voyage to, and early days in, India ; first staff appointment ; Kaira ; early friends ; invalided ; return to Sind ; Sir Charles Napier ; a sketch of the three Lawrence brothers.

Henry Dermot Daly was born at Kirkee, near

Poona, in the Bombay Presidency, on the 25th

October 1823; the second of the two children of

Francis Dermot Daly by his marriage with Mary,

only child of Captain Hugh Mcintosh, who served in

the Peninsular War in the 16th Light Dragoons

(taking part in the battle of Salamanca, and in the

Torquemado), and subsequently in the 101st Foot.

The pedigree of the Daly family is traced far back

into the twilight of Irish history. In the beginning

of the eighteenth century, the branch from which

Henry Daly sprang possessed estates in West Meath.

They were dispossessed in the penal times, and

settled in Connaught on old family lands at Clan-

baniffe (now Daly's Grove) ; here Francis Daly was

born and brought up. As a mere lad, Ensign Francis

Daly joined Wellington's army in the Peninsula, in

company with a still younger brother who was killed

in the storming of San Sebastian. Francis served the

campaigns of 181 3 and 1814 in the 84th Foot, being

wounded in the action near Bayonne on the 13th

A

2 EABLY LIFE

December 1813. In June 1814, he was transferred to the 76th Foot, with which corps he served in the American War, and was present at the siege and battle of Plattsburg. After a short period on half-pay he was posted in 18 18 to the 4th* Light Dragoons, with whom he proceeded to India at the end of 1 82 1 ; he commanded a wing of the regiment during Sir John (afterwards Lord) Keane's operations in Afghanistan, including the siege and capture of Ghazni in 1839, his services being rewarded by a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy. He subsequently held command of the regiment, with which he returned to England in 1842, until he sold out in January 1846. In the absence of their parents in India, Henry Daly, who had been sent home as an infant, and his brother Francis Hugh, who became a barrister, and died unmarried in 1871, were brought up at Newport, Isle of Wight, by their maternal grandmother, Mrs Mcintosh. In 1840, Henry was given a nomination to the East India Company's service, and was posted to the 1 st Bombay European Fusiliers (now the 1st Dublin Fusiliers). The regiment was then at Aden, having formed part in the previous year of the force which first occupied the Aden Peninsula ; but Daly proceeded direct to India to join his father. Ten years later he wrote a brief sketch of his early life : —

" On looking back I see a confused mass of impressions, with little worthy of record, less worthy of selection. Not but perhaps I have, when reflecting on days gone, felt something akin to pride and gratitude. Amidst all, my chief desire has been to become what some in their love and partiality thought I was, and though I may have fallen short of this, I doubt not the very thought of climbing has made me shun the ground.

* Now the 4th Hussars.

FIEST VOYAGE TO INDIA 3

" I was out of sight of England on the 3rd September 1 840. The steamer ploughed away until we reached Gibraltar, where we landed. Since then I have wandered in many lands, have mixed with many strange people, but the memory of that first evening at Gibraltar is clear and distinct; the faces and costumes betokening every race ; the Turk and the Christian, the Jew and the Arab, all mingled together in the narrow streets, with grim houses towering up on either side. ' The Rock,' the Galleries, the hundreds of steps, the tongues of this mass of people, the gestures and grimaces to be equalled in a French Bourse only. On reaching Malta, we are told that Alexandria was in blockade by our fleet ; so at Malta we remained four or five days. When eventually^ we arrived at Alexandria, we found one noble British ship riding at anchor at the mouth of the harbour (a very narrow mouth it is), preventing the egress of the splendid Turkish fleet moored within. After some communication with the shore it was announced that Mehemet Ali * would allow us to pass through Egypt ; accordingly we landed. In those days arrangements for travel were not as they are now (1850). Vehicles of every whimsical kind may at this time be seen in Cairo. Steamers and tug boats now darken the Nile. Then there was but one steamer, which, from its extreme smallness, some wag said was of three donkey power. After many delays on the mud banks of the Nile we entered Cairo. We wished to cross the desert to Suez at once. No horses or camels were to be had ; donkeys were brought out to be our chargers. These animals are extraordinary creatures, not less so than their attendants, the 'donkey boys.' Without his attendant the pony of Jerusalem moves not. The Arab boy shouts and shrieks ; at this signal the donkey rushes on his route quite independent of his rider. As no change was to be had in the desert, two donkeys were assigned to each of us._ We traversed the distance to Suez, 78 or 80 miles, in less than twenty-four hours ; there we found the steamer. On the 23rd September we went

* An excellent sketch of Mehemet Ali and his career is given in Chapter XVIII. of The Cross and the Crescent, by Eliot Warburton, a book to which Daly frequently referred in his earlier letters.

puffing' down the Red Sea, and reached Bombay on the ioth October. I was driven to Sir Henry- Roper's house ; he was a great friend of my father's, and from him I met with a most kind and warm reception. That evening I started for my father's house at Kirkee, about ioo miles from Bombay ; the following evening I reached the cantonment at dusk. I continued with him about a month, when he was ordered with his regiment, as was then supposed, on service to Afghanistan.

"My own regiment was at Aden, but to enable me to study the language, father got me attached to a corps at Poona. I remained at Poona till May 1 84 1 ; then I went to Bombay to try my chance before the Committee of Examination. When the General Orders were published I had the gratification of seeing my name, Ensign Daly, first on the list of 'Qualified Interpreters.' I returned to Poona. Two months after this I was directed to join a detachment of my regiment at a cantonment 70 miles distant. A few months more and my father's regiment was ordered home. I galloped down to spend a week ere the time of departure drew very near ; then I saw him no more* till my return to England. I now

* It was shortly after this that the first news of the Kabul disasters were received. In January 1842, Daly wrote to his brother : "An order has arrived suspending all movements. The deadly outbreak at Cabool has been the cause of this change. Fancy, since father sailed from Bombay, 22 officers have been killed and upwards of 30 wounded, and amongst these some of the wisest and best — Sir A. Burnes and Sir W. Macnaghten. 1 have this instant seen an extract from a letter from Cabool, detailing some of the terrible events. It is thought that without delay an army will be sent up to clear the country of every cut-throat who breathes in it, treacherous villains all. The Chief has offered our regiment to Government. I hope and trust the offer may be accepted, but I fear not.

" About three weeks since an express was received by the Brigadier here from Mallegaum, about 120 miles hence, saying that a Madras t regiment there was in a state of mutiny and calling for aid from here as soon as possible. Accordingly, 150 European artillerymen, 4 guns and 150 Sepoys were ordered to march the next day. I wrote to the Brigadier, volunteering to go ; he accepted and put me in orders to

t The 52nd N. I. : see footnote at page 290 in Kaye's Sepoy War, vol. i.

APPOINTED ADJUTANT 5

deliberately composed myself to overcome a second language; that of the Mahratta. In May 1842, I again appeared before the Committee and with success. At that time I knew the Commander-in-Chief, Sir T. M'Mahon,* and his family well. Lady M'Mahon was kindly interested about my passing. Laughingly, I had obtained a promise from her that, if I got through my trial, she would obtain from Sir Thomas two months' leave for me to the hills, for my health. The day of passing I saw her ; that evening I received a note from an A.D.C. directing me to wait on the Chief the following morning. I concluded it was anent the hills leave ; having been but eighteen months in the army, I had not dreamt of an appointment. Accordingly, I went to Sir Thomas, who congratulated me, and said, ' I have a reward for your industry,' and added something kind. I was appointed Adjutant of an Irregular Infantry Regiment. I was but an ensign at the time ; it changed my pay from 200 to upwards of 500 rupees a month. Strange coincidence, the ' Provincial t Battalion' to which I was appointed was stationed at the very place where formerly had been a large cantonment, which had been abandoned from its unhealthiness to Europeans ; Kaira : there had been the 4th Dragoons ; there too was my mother's grave! So we met. For months every day I passed the spot where she lies. My poor mother ! I was a child when she died, but so often had I read her beautiful letters that her memory was a living feeling.

"There were three European officers in the corps, commandant, adjutant, and doctor. The commandant, a captain of some standing, was married. So was the doctor. I have seen no spot in any

march with the detachments, and away we went, but alas ! our hopes of glory ! were doomed to die a sudden death, for, when we had arrived within 30 miles of Mallegaum, we received an order to retrace our steps as all was quiet."

* Lieut. -General Sir Thomas M'Mahon, Bart., K.C.B., was Commander-in-Chief in Bombay from 1840 to 1847.

t The "Guzerat Battalion," which was raised in 1824, and was some 1200 strong ; it was chiefly employed on civil and police duties in Kaira, Ahmedabad, Broach, and Surat. The Adjutant was also Interpreter and Quarter-master.

country more luxuriantly beautiful than Kaira. Verdure and culture on all sides. Trees of great magnificence, which had been planted by the Muhammadans when the tide of conquest bore them there. The society was limited ; two or three civilians besides the regiment ; yet was I very happy there. Here commenced a friendship between Anderson and myself which ended with his death at Multan. He belonged to my regiment. I had known him before. It so chanced that three of us of the same corps had staff appointments far away from the regiment but near each other : — Grant, the adjutant of a cavalry regiment (like mine), Anderson in the quarter-master general's department. These two were at a large station 20 miles from mine ; we became constant associates and were always at each other's houses. Poor Grant, I can scarcely write his name without a tear. Noble and high-minded, he died young, a year after the time I allude to. Of Anderson I knew even more. Being in the same regiment, possessing many similar inclinations and studies, we were much together. We both entertained ambitious hopes of rising in the service, and for many an hour did we sit of a night at Kaira, dreaming dreams of days to come, breathing hopes of success, alas how suddenly cut short in his case; at a time too .when they were being fast realised. Scarce of my own brother's mind and capacity did I so well know the workings as of Anderson's. After a year near me he joined Sir Charles Napier's staff in Sind.* He won the regard and esteem of the

* In October 1843 Daly wrote home to his brother: — "You will have heard of the rebellion in the Punjab ; I should trust now that we shall place the country in leading strings ; under our sway the Valley of Cashmere would prove the richest and most productive in the world : we are all deeply anxious to know what Lord Ellenborough will do, but it is not probable he will let slip so favourable an opportunity of annexing a gem so precious to our possessions. Should he do this, it will require a strong force and some sharp fighting, for the Sikhs can bring into the field an army 80,000 strong, composed of well-disciplined brave soldiers, and 120 pieces of cannon. All the fighting will, I fancy, fall to the good luck of the Bengal Army. Sind is not to be occupied by Bombay troops any longer. The order for a Bengal Force to march to relieve the Bombay Force is out, but the

RETURN TO ENGLAND 7

general, who gave him an appointment of honour. Severe fever overtook him in the jungle of Sind, and he was obliged to seek home for his health in December 1843. Our correspondence had been regular, for we were much to each other.

"About the time he went to England, or a little earlier, I was seized with fever. I struggled with it for some months, till at last in February 1844, much weakened by its repeated attacks, I went to try the change and sea breeze of Bombay. The first week in Bombay revived me and I saw visions of returning to Kaira, but these were not to remain long. The attacks were renewed ; I was recommended to proceed home, and sailed on the 1st March 1844. I thus relinquished a good appointment and good interest, and the latter could not easily be renewed, as my father had left India. Many said, 'You'll sorely regret this in days to come. At twenty-two resigning a soldierly appointment worth ^700 a year. Try the Cape or Egypt ; your health will be restored there.' (By the rules of the service an officer might go to the Cape or Egypt without losing his Indian pay and Staff appointment, whereas by going home both were sacrificed.) However I carecl little for this sound advice. We underwent quarantine at Malta, whence I travelled with a friend through Sicily, Naples, Civita Vecchia, Leghorn, and Pisa to France. There Anderson and I became again united. I spent some weeks amidst his family in Scotland, and was treated by them as one of themselves. My days passed joyously, and by and by I began to realise mentally the prophecies of those who warned me against going. I knew I ought not to remain the full length (three years) of my leave. It was waste if I thought of climbing. When happily, to save me the decision and free me from the responsibility^ came the order in March 1846, during the Sutlej campaign, ' Rejoin your regiment ordered on service.' In fifteen days I was off. I joined my regiment. The adjutancy became vacant ; I was offered it. A month later I should have lost it, and

Punjab row will probably prevent its being carried into execution for some time ; I hope so, for it would lose me my present appointment."

with it that which has made me what I am, favourable opportunities. I have always liked my noble prfoession, and proud was I when Sir Charles Napier addressed the regiment in terms that made my cheeks tingle. Anderson, after wandering" through Persia, joined me at Karachi, and there we lived in the same house for many months until he went to take up the appointment in which he subsequently met his death."

The speech by Sir Charles Napier, to which allusion is here made, ran as follows : —

"Soldiers,- — I have this day the honour to present new colours to the oldest regiment in the service of the East India Company. A regiment which cannot tread upon any part of our eastern territory whose history has not been illustrated by its glory and by its blood, either in victory or in defeat. Aye, in defeat ; for though defeat has, in the long course of ages, fallen at times like a direful vapour on the arms of England, and for a moment veiled their brilliancy, still has the indomitable courage of the European remained unbroken, and, as the sun, shorn of its beams, may be traced, though dimly, through a murky mist, so has British valour ever been traced through disaster, till other battles and better leading gave fresh victories to our arms.

"To a young corps, unknown to history, I could speak largely on the duties of soldiers to their colours ; but to you, Fusiliers, whose bayonets gleam with the splendour of Indian triumphs, whose standards are wreathed with the accumulated laurels of ages, I have only to point out past exploits ; to recall to your memories the battlefields under Clive, Lawrence, Coote, Cornwallis, Smith — from Plassey to Beni-Boo-Ali — -aye, and long before Plassey ; including innumerable sieges and assaults, unsurpassed in number and in daring by any regiment in the world. Were I to dwell on all the battles and stormings, it would keep us till midnight. I will, therefore, speak but of two which appear to me among the most celebrated- — I mean the capture of Ahmedabad and of Seringapatam. At Ahmedabad the two intrepid

SPEECH BY CHARLES NAPIER 9

men, Ensign Hieme and Sergeant Hugh Fridge, both of your regiment, led the stormers to the walls, and, sword in hand, they mounted the breach, and won Hieme his lieutenancy and Fridge the honour of carrying the colours, for which he had so bravely fought.

"A few years later, the same courageous soldier, the same Hugh Fridge (now become Captain Fridge of the Bombay Europeans), mounted the immortal breach of Seringapatam, close following the more young, more active, and more renowned Sergeant James Graham, who there fell, not the first bearing that honoured name, distinguished by a glorious death in the service of the British throne. Soldiers, it must rouse the minds of military men to think of the exultation of your regiment, as, in a dense column, it rushed up the breach following the gallant Graham, and beheld the hero waving the colours of England on _ the summit amidst the flashing of Mysorean scimitars, the fire, the smoke, and the loud cheers of the stormers, as they fiercely won their bloody footing aloft.

"Take your splendid colours, soldiers, refulgent with the glories of a hundred battles. Ye are as good men, as brave men, and as strong men to do battle as the heroes who went before you, and the day will come when, in future combats, you shall renovate* your fame as you have this day renovated your standards."

From his earliest years Daly was a careful student of character, and was in the habit of keeping a journal, "being assured that the mere paper committal of one's ordinary pursuits and feelings tends to improve both." He was a great, but discursive reader : —

" I have a horror of the human mind being stuffed like a turkey, fed only with diet to fit it for the table.

* See footnote, pp. 50, 51. The text of the speech was placed at the author's disposal through the courtesy of an officer now serving with the Dublin Fusiliers. To all readers it will at once occur that Sir Charles Napier's closing words were especially prophetic of the fame which was to be won by the regiment in South Africa.

I have ever been a Republican in literature, following a most desultory course. I never drew up a system in my life, never followed that of anyone^ I confess I have occasionally repented the not having- done so. I find I have collected a considerable quantity of knowledge, for I have read much of general literature — History, Travels, Biographies, Reviews. I have never attempted to master any scientific subject, know nothing of any of the ology family. But I hold the information a man gets from books very inferior towards educating the mind to that which is obtained from observation and reflection. Yet is there no more ardent lover of books than I am ; none so lonely without them. Biography has ever been a favourite branch of reading with me. There is no study so ennobling, more instructive, more consolatory ; perseverance and self-culture — no ability can claim immunity from these and still perform its course. Touching languages, I can always cover my reputation with the mantle of Eastern tongues, which I hope will always be to me what the earth is to the physician, covering all civilised blunders. German I can speak tolerably (read that last word slowly, it is not intended to imply vast things) ; three or four weeks in Germany would, I think, make me perfectly fluent in the language. Not so French ; I have had less practice there in conversation."

At Karachi Daly was first introduced to Sir Charles Napier, from whom in later years he received much kindness, and whom he ever regarded with the deepest respect and affection. In 1847 he recorded in his journal : —

"Sir Charles has quitted 'his own won' country, bearing with him as much affection and respect from all employed under him as ever great man had on relinquishing a high command in which, of necessity, he had frequently to apply the curb in an autocratic government. Even those who at times spoke^ lightly of the hero that's gone, felt deeply at his going ; as he placed his foot upon the boat which was to bear him away, the hearts of those around were too full to

IN INDIA AGAIN 11

cheer ; no one spoke, but many instinctively uncovered their heads. He too was deeply affected. Never did I feel prouder than as he passed down the line of troops, where with dropped sword I sat on horseback at the end of our formation, he recognised me and said, ' Ah, Daly, is that you ? ' and turned his horse and shook me by the hand with ' Goodbye, good luck to you, my boy.' I bade God bless him, and felt at that moment that good must befall me after his wish."

Shortly after this Daly was also much affected by the departure of his commanding officer, Colonel Cumming : —

" We have lost the dear old Colonel. I knew not how much we were attached to him until the time of parting. I have never met such a character. He had mingled much with the world, and from being of an inquisitive temper and fond of the study of men, had seen and thought much of feelings and dispositions. In some things he had an intuitive knowledge of what a man would think and do. His simplicity was wondrous, as pure and high in his own ideas and in his appreciation of the ' right ' as on the day he left his father's house. He possessed more charity than any man I ever knew. He judged more kindly of acts perhaps than they at all times deserved ; but, by his interpretations of men's motives, he raised the standard in the mind of each, and many who heeded little of morality before strove to win the Colonel's regard. Falsehood he held as the lowest and meanest act a man could commit ; without truth, rigid truth, no character could prosper, no talents could support a man lacking it."