ith any semblance of order. The 3rd Cavalry charged
through, and back again, one of the battalions which attempted to
receive them with steadiness, and Colonel Forbes was severely wounded,
while Captain Moore, a brother of the adjutant, had his horse killed
under him. The rout of the enemy was complete, and the troopers, as
well as irregulars, were fairly exhausted cutting down the fugitives.
More than 700 were left on the field, and many horses; while numbers
more were slain in the pursuit. The British loss was only 1 officer and
18 men killed, and 4 officers and 60 men wounded. Lieutenant Frankland,
of the 2nd European Regiment, who was killed, was highly mentioned, as
was Lieutenant Greentree, of the 64th, who lost his leg.

Subsequently, on the 2nd of May, a treaty of peace was signed at Bagdad,
in which the Shah agreed to evacuate Herat, and to refrain from all
interference in future in the internal affairs of Afghanistan.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

THE INDIAN MUTINY--1857-1858.

The year 1857 saw the commencement of the Indian Mutiny, a terrible
outbreak of cruelty and fanaticism which, while it inflicted unspeakable
anguish upon hundreds of our defenceless countrywomen and their
children, desolated many an English home, and evoked the horror and
compassion of the civilised world, was also the occasion of numberless
acts of heroism and devotion, not only on the part of British soldiers
and their native allies, but of all classes of civilians.

Among other causes which led to the rising of so many of the natives,
was no doubt the impression made by the Crimean war, under the influence
of which certain ambitious Mohammedan chiefs, combining with some Hindoo
rulers, misled by false accounts of the result of the war with Russia,
formed the idea that the time had arrived for destroying the power of
Great Britain in India.

For this purpose they made use of the prejudices and superstitions of
the Hindoo soldiery, and the avarice and worst passions of the
Mohammedans; and a story that the new cartridges issued to the troops
were made with pig's or bullock's fat--the one being an abomination to
the Mohammedans, the other to the Hindoos, who eating it would lose
caste--was believed by the more ignorant and fanatical, who saw in it a
design to destroy their religion.

The first serious outbreak took place at Meerut, when 85 out of 90 men
of the 3rd Light Cavalry refused to use the cartridges. They were
condemned to a