is
pay to purchase sweetmeats for the mare, to which she was exceedingly
partial. I made the groom feed her himself with this remunerative
luxury, and, to give the poor fellow his due, he did it good-naturedly
enough.

Soon after daybreak we again got on our way, but found that we were a
much greater distance from the fort than we had been led by our spies to
suppose. We now marched in full preparation to meet the enemy, assured
that they would not lose the fair opportunity of stopping our progress,
which was now afforded them. On our arrival at the spot where we
expected to meet with resistance, to view the wide roaring river, the
Nerbuddah, majestically rolling over its rocky bed, would alone have
been sufficient to stop the progress of soldiers less inured to
difficulties than we were. Had that river been defended, the forcing of
the passage would have cost us dearly in lives. The banks on the
opposite side were bold and abrupt; and the only accessible part for
wheel-carriages was a roadway that had been excavated from the sides of
the river. Had this ford been defended, or the road stopped, our passage
would have been attended with immense difficulty and danger; but we did
not see a single man, and we could form no other conclusion from such
apparent indifference to so advantageous a position, than that they had
occupied, and were resolved to defend, some place which they deemed more
suitable to their purpose. About a mile farther, we saw some unarmed
stragglers on the edge or margin of a wood, peeping at us. I rode after
one of this party, whom, when I came up, I found to be a woman. She
immediately threw herself on her knees, and begged for mercy, saying she
was a poor villager. When she saw that I had not the remotest intention
of injuring her, she afforded me every information I required; stating
that all the soldiers were in the fort and town, and that, until we got
there, we should fall in with none but poor and inoffensive people, who
were leaving the fort for their native homes. With a large party of this
kind we fell in, almost immediately afterwards. They were armed, and
drawn up in battle array; and nothing but the appearance of women and
children among them would have prevented our advance from firing on
them. From the fortunate circumstance that the poor woman with whom I
had fallen in, had informed me that some of the people that did not wish
to serve the rebel rajah had left the fort, the whole of thi