of Hattrass, search was made
by us for the keeledar, and his friend the negotiator, who had been so
many times in camp; but neither of these gentlemen could be found; and
we naturally concluded they must have escaped on the evening of the
storm; for, strange to say, a great body of cavalry had cut their way
through some of our cavalry piquets. The Europeans saddled the native
corps of Hindostanee horse with this; and they in return threw the blame
on the European cavalry. Some part of this flying enemy, however, passed
the piquet of the 8th Light Dragoons, and several of the brave fellows
of that regiment were wounded in endeavouring to stop them; but I have
no doubt that the main body passed between the right of the 8th Dragoons
and the left of the corps of Captain Badley's horse, between which
flanks there was a wide space and a high-road. This road was watched by
a regiment of native infantry. From the beautiful horses left in the
fort, and the immense number of suits of chain armour we found strewed
about the stables of the cavalry, the whole of the enemy's horse must
have been in mail; so that our cavalry could have made but little
impression, even if they had fallen in with them. By this escape one of
our grand objects was defeated, by the loss of the person of the rebel
governor, who was wanted to answer his rebellion to an offended
government. How it was possible that a single individual could have
escaped such a bombardment, was to us a mystery; for large houses were
literally torn up by the roots. They had thrown a great number of their
dead into a well, and many lay in the ditch, a melancholy and revolting
sight, for the sun had swollen them to an enormous size.

It seems that, the moment any of their children were killed in houses
remote from the well, they were thrown into the street. I counted five
limbless babes in one street.

The day I left camp the maniac widow died; and it is with infinite
pleasure I now bid farewell, for a time, to such distressing scenes.

Deputies from the other forts and dependencies of this rajah had
witnessed the siege _incog._, and were no doubt in camp when the
explosion took place. Not being inclined to risk the same aerial ascent,
or to be entombed, as many hundreds of the poor creatures in Hattrass
had been, they readily surrendered to the wishes of the government. What
had become of Diaram--for that was the rajah's name--we could not
discover; but he was a dangerous man