,
and one that pretended to have a regard for us, ought to be ashamed of abetting
him in it.« These were the thanks which honest Bows got for his friendship and
his life's devotion. And I do not suppose that the old philosopher was much
worse off than many other men, or had greater reason to grumble.
 
On the second floor of the next house to Bows's, in Shepherd's Inn, at No. 3,
live two other acquaintances of ours, Colonel Altamont, agent to the Nawaub of
Lucknow, and Captain the Chevalier Edward Strong. No name at all is over their
door. The Captain does not choose to let all the world know where he lives, and
his cards bear the address of a Jermyn Street hotel; and as for the Ambassador
Plenipotentiary of the Indian potentate, he is not an envoy accredited to the
Courts of St. James's or Leadenhall Street, but is here on a confidential
mission, quite independent of the East India Company or the Board of Control.
»In fact,« as Strong says, »Colonel Altamont's object being financial, and to
effectuate a sale of some of the principal diamonds and rubies of the Lucknow
crown, his wish is not to report himself at the India House or in Cannon Row,
but rather to negotiate with private capitalists - with whom he has had
important transactions both in this country and on the Continent.«
    We have said that these anonymous chambers of Strong's had been very
comfortably furnished since the arrival of Sir Francis Clavering in London, and
the Chevalier might boast with reason to the friends who visited him, that few
retired Captains were more snugly quartered than he, in his crib in Shepherd's
Inn. There were three rooms below: the office where Strong transacted his
business - whatever that might be - and where still remained the desk and
railings of the departed officials who had preceded him, and the Chevalier's own
bedroom and sitting-room; and a private stair led out of the office to two upper
apartments, the one occupied by Colonel Altamont, and the other serving as the
kitchen of the establishment, and the bedroom of Mr. Grady, the attendant. These
rooms were on a level with the apartments of our friends Bows and Costigan next
door at No. 4; and by reaching over the communicating leads, Grady could command
the mignonette-box which bloomed in Bows's window.
    From Grady's kitchen-casement often came odours still more fragrant. The
three old soldiers who formed the garrison of No. 3
