Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/502

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
478
OUR ANGLO-INDIAN ARMY.

the siege and storming, amounted to 61 Europeans and 42 natives killed, and 283 Europeans and 183 natives wounded. The loss of the garrison was estimated at 4,000 men, nearly all killed by the awful explosion of the great mine.

After the ammunition, arms, stores, &c., had been removed to places of safety, the principal bastions, curtains, and other important parts of the fortification were blown into the air, and it was left to the monsoon rains to complete the ruin of Bhurtpore, whose boasted impregnability was thus annihilated for ever. With the fall of this celebrated fortress perished all expectation of successfully resisting the British Government: Deeg, Biana, Kama, and all the other fortresses within the dominions of Bhurtpore, surrendered at once and were garrisoned by British troops, while the inhabitants returned peaceably to their homes and occupations, and the young Rajah was restored to the musnud under British protection.

On the 20th of February the Commander-in-Chief broke up from before Bhurtpore and returned to Calcutta; and when the conquest was announced in England, thanks were voted to the army by Parliament and by the Company; while the prize-money to which the latter were legally entitled was ordered by the Court of Directors to be distributed amongst the troops present at the capture.

The siege of Bhurtpore had completely fixed the attention of all India, for on its issue were felt to depend not only the renown of the Anglo-Indian Army, but the permanency of the British empire in Asia. The opportunity it offered for effacing the stigma of Lord Lake's failure in 1805 was highly appreciated on the one hand, but on the other it was admitted that a second failure might realise the feeling of the Delhi mob, when they shouted a few months before, "The rule of the Company is at an end!" While the conflict lasted, therefore, a general ferment was observable among the surrounding