, with one child on their backs, and one before them. Their
horses flew along the plain with extraordinary rapidity.

Having gone about four or five miles, some few of the Pindarees formed,
and seemed inclined to come to the scratch; but, before we could reach
them, their hearts failed them, and they rode off, passing upon the
gentlemen with the white faces some unpleasant epithets, which decency
forbids me to mention. The declining sun had already dipped his golden
beams in the distant lake, and bid us speed while yet he tarried. We had
some hours of day remaining, and by the close of the evening we cut up
numbers of them. At this time Lieutenant Turner's corps of Local Horse
had separated themselves from the 4th Cavalry; and, before it was dark,
the brigadier wished them to rejoin him, for the whole of the enemy's
baggage was in sight. I was dispatched for the purpose of delivering the
general's communications and wishes. When about half way on my road on
this duty, I found that a number of straggling Pindarees were prowling
about, some of them wounded; and, in riding over the ground again, it
was evident to me that we had not been idle. Lieutenant Turner and his
corps of Local Horse had also done the state good service. I was riding
at speed to deliver my orders, when, from behind a large tree, a
Pindaree had the impudence to discharge his matchlock in my very teeth;
but the ball missed me. I had before this bent my faithful friend, the
24th Dragoon sabre, nearly double, by striking at the thick
cotton-stuffed coats of the Pindarees; but, in the course of the battle,
I had seized a large spear of one of the enemy, of which weapon I well
knew the use, having been taught by one of the first spearsmen in the
country--the zemindar of the elephants during the sieges of Bhurtpore
and other places. In the moment of forgetfulness and irritation I threw
away my sabre, and was resolved to chastise the Pin for firing at me, in
his own way; so I ran at him with the spear laid across the first joint
of my left arm, with the butt under my right arm. For a time he parried
it, but at last I ran it into his neck, and I rode round him something
like a brickmaker's horse going round, and twisted him completely off
his horse. He soon fell, and, as I could see some of his comrades coming
towards me, I rode off. I then began to regret having parted with my old
friend, the twenty-fourther, which had so often stood my friend in the
hour of p