were of common occurrence in the city, and the hands of the old
provost-sergeant were full. Disguised sepoys and inhabitants taken
with arms in their possession had short shrift, and were at once
consigned to the gallows, a batch of ten one day suffering death
opposite the Kotwali.

In the beginning of October two more reputed sons of the old King were
shot by sentence of court-martial. They had commanded regiments of
the rebel army, and were foremost in the revolt, even joining in the
massacre of our people. The 60th Rifles and some Goorkhas formed
the firing party, and took, strange to say, such bad aim that the
provost-sergeant had to finish the work by shooting each culprit with
a pistol. Nothing could have been more ill-favoured and dirty than the
wretched victims; but they met their fate in silence and with the most
dogged composure.

_September 28_.--Accompanied by our Adjutant and some other officers, I
rode out to Taliwarra and Kishenganj on September 28. These suburbs were
a mass of ruins, but enough was left intact to show the immense strength
of the enemy's position at the former place. Batteries had been erected
at every available spot, strongly fortified and entrenched, and one in
particular which had raked the right of our position was perfect in
every detail, and was guarded by a ditch, or rather _nallah_, forty feet
deep.

We passed through the large caravanserai, the scene of the conflict
during the memorable sortie of July 9, and when in the course of our
inspection in the enclosure a ludicrous event occurred. An officer who
had been shot through the leg on that day, recognizing the place where
he had received his wound, dismounted from his horse, and stood on the
very spot. He was in the act of explaining events, and describing his
sensations when shot, when suddenly he made a jump in the air, uttering
a cry of pain, and commenced rubbing his legs, first one and then the
other. We burst into laughter at the antics of our friend, who, we
imagined, had been seized with a fit of madness quite at variance with
his usual quiet demeanour, and jokingly asked him what was the matter.
Still writhing with pain, and engaged in his involuntary saltatory
exercise, he pointed to a swarm of wasps which, roused from their nest,
on which he had been standing, covered his lower extremities, and had
made their way inside his pantaloons, stinging him on both legs, and
crawling up his body. The pain must have been i