his time a summons to surrender had been
sent to the Raja, but he vouchsafed no reply, and, as we advanced, a
9-pounder shot was fired at the head of the column, killing a drummer
of the Forty-Second. The attack on the fort then commenced, without any
attempt being made to reconnoitre the position, and ended in a most
severe loss, Brigadier Hope being among the killed. Lieutenant
Willoughby, who commanded the Sikhs,--a brother of the officer who blew
up the powder-magazine at Delhi, rather than let it fall into the hands
of the enemy,--was also killed; as were Lieutenants Douglas and Bramley
of the Forty-Second, with nearly one hundred men, Highlanders and Sikhs.
Hope was shot from a high tree inside the fort, and, at the time, it was
believed that the man who shot him was a European.[43] After we retired
from the fort the excitement was so great among the men of the
Forty-Second and Ninety-Third, owing to the sacrifice of so many
officers and men through sheer mismanagement, that if the officers had
given the men the least encouragement, I am convinced they would have
turned out in a body and hanged General Walpole. The officers who were
killed were all most popular men; but the great loss sustained by the
death of Adrian Hope positively excited the men to fury. So heated was
the feeling on the night the dead were buried, that if any
non-commissioned officer had dared to take the lead, the life of General
Walpole would not have been worth half an hour's purchase.

After the force retired,--for we actually retired!--from Rooyah on the
evening of the 15th of April, we encamped about two miles from the
place, and a number of our dead were left in the ditch, mostly
Forty-Second and Sikhs; and, so far as I am aware, no attempt was made
to invest the fort or to keep the enemy in. They took advantage of this
to retreat during the night; but this they did leisurely, burning their
own dead, and stripping and mutilating those of our force that were
abandoned in the ditch. It was reported in the camp that Colonel Haggard
of the Ninth Lancers, commanding the cavalry brigade, had proposed to
invest the place, but was not allowed to do so by General Walpole, who
was said to have acted in such a pig-headed manner that the officers
considered him insane. Rumour added that when Colonel Haggard and a
squadron of the Lancers went to reconnoitre the place on the morning of
the 16th, it was found empty; and that when Colonel Haggard sent an