him. His answer was, "Oh, never mind him, Shipp: we will catch him
before he is a week older." I never in my life felt more inclined to
disobey orders, for he was still capering close by us. An officer
commanding one of the six-pounders came up at the same time, and told
his lordship that, if he would permit him, he would knock him over, the
first shot, or lose his commission. His lordship said, "Well, try." At
this moment the fellow fired his matchlock again, and immediately
commenced reloading his piece. Our gun was unlimbered, laid, and fired;
the ball striking the horse's rump, passed through the man's back, and
the poor animal's neck, and we said, "So much for the Pin."

We marched, on the average, about twenty-five miles a day; but we were
obliged to push our poor horses on even faster than this, for Holkar was
making his way to Futtyghur, a small military station. This is a rich
city; and, no doubt, his inclination was to plunder and burn it. He
arrived at Furrackabad, about three or four miles from the above
station, the day before us, for the purpose of exacting money from the
rajah there. The little force at the station was withdrawn from the
barracks, and placed for the protection of the mint, which had a short
time before been established there. In the evening they arrived, and on
the morning of the same day we marched upwards of twenty miles, halted
till eight o'clock at night, then made ourselves as light as possible,
and again moved on, intending to surprise them before daylight the
following morning. We had twenty-eight miles to accomplish before that
time, and there is no doubt, from the judicious arrangement made for
this attack, by his excellency the commander-in-chief, that scarcely a man
would have escaped us, had not a most unfortunate circumstance occurred,
which was near destroying all our plans. An ammunition-tumbrel belonging
to one of our six-pounders, from the rapid rate at which we were moving,
blew up within half a mile of the enemy; who were buried in the arms of
sleep, they having made a forced march, so as to prevent the possibility
of our reaching them. This alarmed a few of those who happened to be
awake; but they supposed it the station-gun at Futtyghur. This
station-gun was really fired about ten minutes after, and some of them
got on the move; but thousands of them were still asleep. I would
recommend all officers who serve in India, to attack the enemy, if
possible, in the night. At