that it could never be taken, and that the Jauts were destined to be the rallying-point of India.
But the period was rapidly approaching when the impregnability of the fortress, and the resolution of its usurping master, were to be tested. A vast force, exceeding twenty thousand men, with a field of more than a hundred pieces of artillery, was advancing upon it, under the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Combermere, who had gained such high distinction in the Peninsula war as Sir Stapleton Cotton.[1] On the 5th of December his lordship's head-quarters were at Muttra, from whence he ordered the second division of infantry, commanded by Major-General Nicolls, with the first brigade of cavalry and a detachment of Skinner's local horse, to march from Agra by Danagore to Bhurtpore, and to take up a position to the west of the town. The first division of infantry, under Major-General Reynell, with the second brigade of cavalry, and the remainder of Skinner's horse, marched by another route to take up a position on the north-east of the town. With this column proceeded the Commander-in-Chief, and his head-quarters were before Bhurtpore on the 10th of December. Here his lordship humanely proposed to Doorjun Saul the withdrawal of the women and children from the town, promising them safe conduct through his camp, but received an evasive answer from the heartless tyrant.
On the approach of the Anglo-Indian Army the Jauts had cut the bund, or embankment, of an artificial lake, with the view of filling the broad deep ditch that surrounds Bhurtpore, as they had done during Lord Lake's siege in 1805; but our troops having arrived before they had quite effected their purpose, instantly made themselves masters of the embankment, and repaired the breach. Several days were now occupied in the construction of works; during which operations a party of about two hundred of the enemy's horse attempted to make their escape; but they were intercepted, thirty or
- ↑ Thornton, v., 154.
