"So one of Burgoyne's sepoys was wounded?" asked Elphinstone.
"Yes, General; his legs are scarcely quite to the regimental pattern now."
"How so, Polwhele?"
"A ball from a juzail smashed the knee; so the limb was amputated."
This elicited a little chorus of commiseration from the ladies, but as the sufferer was a native, it soon subsided.
"Any word, General, of your aide-de-camp Trevelyan of ours?" asked Waller.
"None—save that he was off the sick list, and soon to leave Bombay and join us here," replied Trecarrel; "but if this news about the passes be true, I hope he will be in no hurry to come this way; he is a fine fellow, Trevelyan."
(The name found an echo in Denzil's heart, which sank for a moment.)
"I knew him when in the 14th Hussars, at Agra," said Burgoyne to Rose; "he was not then the heir to a title."
She coloured perceptibly. Denzil did not see this, but Mabel did, and she laughed.