Page:Clyde and Strathnairn.djvu/95

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THE NORTHERN OPERATIONS
85

in following them up. By insisting that this should be done Lord Canning once more displayed a military knowledge and instinct of which few at that time were aware. Three columns, under Brigadiers Walpole, Penny, and Jones, were ordered to penetrate Rohilkhand from different points, supported by a fourth column under Colonel Seaton, who had been protecting the country around Fatehgarh. All four columns were to converge upon Bareilly, where, it was hoped, the main body of the rebels under Khán Bahádur Khán would be met, defeated, and captured.

Leaving Oudh for the moment to take care of itself, the Commander-in-Chief quitted Lucknow, April 7th, 1858, four days after Sir Hugh Kose had stormed and taken Jhánsí. Joining Walpole's brigade, which (with the exception of an unfortunate reverse at Ruyah, when Adrian Hope was killed) had done well, the Commander-in-Chief pushed on with a force amounting to about 7500 men and 19 guns to Bareilly. On May the 4th he was close to the place. Khán Bahádur Khán, alive to his danger, determined to show a bold front. Between the town and the Commander-in-Chief's force ran a stream, which the rebel leader crossed with the first line of his troops, leaving the second line to defend the cantonments and the town. Early the next morning Sir Colin Campbell moved forward, and after an action which lasted six hours, under a hot sun, practically gained possession of this position. With his usual solicitude