The "three"
were Scarlett's aide-de-camp, Elliot, and the trumpeter, and
Shegog the orderly, who had been close behind him.'--_Author's
Note._
XCVI, XCVII
_The Return of the Guards, and other Poems_, 1866. By permission
of Messrs. Macmillan. As to the first, which deals with an
incident of the war with China, and is presumably referred
to in 1860, 'Some Seiks and a private of the Buffs (or East
Kent Regiment) having remained behind with the grog-carts,
fell into the hands of the Chinese. On the next morning they
were brought before the authorities and commanded to perform
the _Ko tou_. The Seiks obeyed; but Moyse, the English soldier,
declaring that he would not prostrate himself before any Chinaman
alive, was immediately knocked upon the head and his body thrown
upon a dunghill.'--Quoted by the author from _The Times_. The
Elgin of line 6 is Henry Bruce, eighth Lord Elgin (1811-1863),
then Ambassador to China, and afterwards Governor-General of
India. Compare _Theology in Extremis_ (_post_, p. 309). Of the
second, which Mr. Saintsbury describes 'as one of the most lofty,
insolent, and passionate things concerning this matter that our
time has produced,' Sir Francis notes that the incident--no doubt
a part of the conquest of Sindh--was told him by Sir Charles
Napier, and that 'Truckee' (line 12) = 'a stronghold in the
Desert, supposed to be unassailable and impregnable.
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