fortunate. Baffled by Mr Halliday's precautions in their original intentions, they apparently resolved to make for Jalpaigúrí, to effect there a junction with the main body of their regiment, the 73d. That regiment had been kept from outbreak by two circumstances; the first, that they were located in an isolated station, cut off from their comrades, and they had but a dim perception of what was passing in the world beyond them; and, secondly, by the splendid firmness of their commanding officer, Colonel George Sherer,[1] who, on the first symptoms of mutiny had seized the ringleaders, brought them to a court-martial, and, in pursuance of the sentence recorded, had had them blown away from guns, despite the order of the cowed authorities in Calcutta that he should release them. The execution of those three rebels had saved many hundreds of lives, and had helped to maintain order. But not even the haughty bearing of Sherer would have kept his men to their allegiance had their mutinied comrades reached Jalpaigúrí. It became, then, a great object to prevent them, and this task was entrusted to the capable hands of George Yule.
With a company of the 5th Fusiliers, a few local levies, and the officers of the district at his disposal, Yule marched to meet and baffle the Dháká mutineers. Joined by the Yeomanry Cavalry, to be presently referred to, he prevented them from entering Purniá, barred to them the road to Jalpaigúrí, and, finally, compelled them to cross the frontier into Nipál. Thence, after suffering many hardships, they made their way into Oudh, only to fall there by the bullet and the sword.
In Western Bihár, and in the districts belonging to the commissionership of Banáras, those of Juánpur, Ázamgarh, and Gorákhpur, abutting on Eastern Oudh,
- ↑ Father of the Sherer referred to in the page preceding.
