Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/498

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474
OUR ANGLO-INDIAN ARMY.

and wounded spirit, and died there very soon after. The conqueror of the Goorkhas, the man who remedied the blunders of others in the Nepaul war, the veteran who had served the Company for half a century, was honoured by the high functionaries of Calcutta with minute-guns and a complimentary general order.[1]

The Government of Calcutta, however, was ultimately compelled to adopt the measures recommended by General Ochterlony, and subsequently enforced by his successor at Delhi, Sir Charles Metcalfe; and on the 18th of September, two months after the death of Sir David, it was determined by the Governor in Council to support the minor, Bulwunt Singh, if all other measures failed, by force of arms. To this course they were still further induced by a quarrel which broke out between Doorjun Saul and his brother, Madhoo Singh, with whom he had previously acted in concert, and who was believed to have been the chief instigator of his proceedings. Madhoo Singh attempted to seize the fort of Bhurtpore and the person of his brother; but failing in this, he raised an independent standard, early in July, in the fortress of Deeg, subjected or plundered all the neighbouring country, and invited adventurers of all kinds to join and share his fortunes. Among those attracted thither by the cry of war was a considerable body of Mahrattas, who crossed the Chumbul from Scindia's country, and joined Madhoo Singh at Deeg; near which place Doorjun Saul's troops were defeated with considerable slaughter. The Company's frontiers were thrown into a ferment: many of their subjects took up arms, some to join one, and some the other of the contending brothers; and those regions were once more threatened with anarchy, which had been pacified by the happy termination of the Pindarrie-Mahratta war. Meanwhile the usurper was strengthening the always formidable fortress of Bhurtpore; and the native princes most inimical to the English were inculcating the belief

  1. Macfarlane's "British India."