At break of day the breach was perceived to be again stockaded, and it was not until three o'clock in the afternoon that it was cleared. The troops then moved out of the trenches, and advanced towards the ditch. Here it was for the first time discovered that, by damming up the water at certain points, a sheet of great depth and breadth had been accumulated in front of the breach. A portable bridge had been constructed for the purpose of crossing the ditch, but it was too short to be of any use; a scaling-ladder was brought to lengthen it, but this got entangled with the bridge, and, instead of connecting it with the escarp, fell over on one side, carrying with it the bridge, from which it could not be disengaged. No systematic attempt was therefore made to pass the storming-party over the ditch; but Lieutenant Morris, of the Company's European regiment, and several men, gallantly swam across and ascended the breach. Lieutenant Morris got on the rampart, and there received a severe wound in the leg; and, in swimming back, when the attempt to storm had been abandoned, he was again wounded in the neck.
The retreat commenced in great confusion; but another column of the British force making its appearance from a jungle, round which it had been moving, with a view to an attack upon a different point, the retiring party thereupon rallied. The meditated attack of the advancing column, however, being found impracticable, the whole fell back, leaving to the enemy the bridge and scaling-ladders, and, which was far worse, a large number of wounded. Throughout the advance of the British force, during the delay at the bridge (which occupied at least half-an-hour) and on the retreat, the enemy kept up a destructive fire of grape, round shot, and musketry. The effect was attested by a melancholy return of eighteen officers and 500 men killed and wounded. During the attack the British cavalry were engaged in keeping off Holkar and Ameer Khan, a task readily effected by the galloper-guns. About fifty of the enemy were killed.
