About noon
But Arthur was too anxious for active employment to brook any such delay ; so , after a few days ' sojourn at the Capital , attended only by his servants , took the road to Runjetpoora , where his regiment was reported to be stationed . Nothing , of interest occurred on the route , until within a few miles of his destination where he expected to join his corps . It being his last day 's march , he had sent his servants and baggage on several hours in advance , and being well armed and well mounted , he started from his halting place about daylight , alone , and pursued his course along the high road , in the best possible spirits , feeling well contented with the position of things in general , and his own in particular . About noon , being somewhat heated and thirsty , he turned his horse 's head to the right , and rode quietly some distance into the jungle , and finding a cool shady spot by a small running stream , dismounted , and taking off the saddle from his charger , gave him a feed of gram or corn , and allowed a sufficient length of tether to enable him to crop the soft grass which grew in the immediate vicinity of the running stream just alluded to , while he rested and regaled himself with some biscuits , brandy punnee , and his favourite German pipe . He had taken up his position at the foot of a small tree , with his back against the trunk , his famous tiger-rifle lying by his side and the hilt of his sabre within convenient handling distance , for the time and place was such that these precautions could not , with safety , be neglected . While thus resting , he sank into a deep reverie ; his thoughts wandering back to his school boy days , in merry old England , ere he had sighed for a sword and feather or longed to seek the bubble reputation at the cannon 's mouth , or dreamed of scenes by flood and field , beneath the scorching suns , over the arid plains , or amid the wild trackless jungles of Industan . Then Vellenaux , the home of his happy youth with its architectural grandeurs , its magnificent parks and rich woodland scenery , passed in review like a panorama before his mental vision , but fair as these visions were , another far brighter rose before which all others paled or faded by comparison .