[Footnote 4:  Throughout the campaign the Commissariat Department never failed:  the troops were invariably well supplied, and, even during the longest marches, fresh bread was issued almost daily.]

[Footnote 5:  ‘The Indian Mutiny,’ Thornhill.]

[Footnote 6:  ‘The Indian Mutiny,’ Thornhill.]

[Footnote 7:  It consisted of the 3rd European Regiment, 568 strong, a battery of Field Artillery, with Native drivers and a few European Artillerymen, and about 100 mounted Militia and Volunteers, composed of officers, civilians and others who had taken refuge in Agra.]

[Footnote 8:  The police were suspected of having invited the insurgents who defeated Polwhele to Agra.]

[Footnote 9:  Known as the Doab.]

[Footnote 10:  Colonel Fraser died within nine months of our leaving Agra.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXII. 1857

Advantage of being a good horseman—­News from Lucknow —­Cawnpore—­Heart-rending scenes—­Start for Lucknow —­An exciting Adventure—­Arrival of Sir Colin Campbell —­Plans for the advance

On the 14th October we moved camp to the left bank of the Jumna, where we were joined by a small party of Artillerymen with two 18-pounder guns, and some convalescents belonging to the regiments with us, who had been left behind at Delhi—­300 in all.  Our camp was pitched in a pretty garden called the Rambagh, only a short distance from Agra, where we gave a picnic to the ladies who had been so kind to our wounded men—­a rough sort of entertainment, as may be imagined, but much enjoyed by the easily-pleased people who had been prisoners for so long, to whom the mere getting away from the fort for a few hours was a relief.

On the morning of the 15th we commenced our march towards Mainpuri, a small station seventy miles from Agra, which we reached on the 18th.  While on our way there, Hope Grant, Colonel of the 9th Lancers, arrived in camp to take over the command of the column.  He had remained at Delhi when superseded by Greathed, and being naturally indignant at the treatment he had received, he protested against it, and succeeded in getting the order appointing Greathed to the command cancelled.

Had an officer been specially selected on account of his possessing a more intimate acquaintance with Native soldiers and a longer experience of India, Hope Grant would no doubt have accepted the inevitable.  But Greathed did not know as much of the country and Native troops as Hope Grant did; he had seen no service before he came to Delhi, and while there had no opportunity of showing that he possessed any particular qualification for command; he certainly did not exhibit any while in charge of the column, and everyone in the force was pleased to welcome Hope Grant as its leader.

The Raja of Mainpuri, who had openly joined the rebels, fled the day before we marched in, leaving behind him several guns and a quantity of powder.  We halted on the 20th, blew up his fort and destroyed the powder.  The European part of the station was in ruins, but a relation of the Raja had been able to prevent the Government treasury from being plundered, and he made over to us two and a half lakhs of rupees.