Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/435

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Sam Browne in Rohilkhand.
399

a prisoner. There can be little doubt but that his mind was affected, for he committed suicide when it was announced to him that, after four years of detention, he would be allowed to resume his position.[1]

Meanwhile, Sir Hope Grant, under orders from Sir Colin Campbell, had proceeded in carrying out his plan for the pacification of Oudh. I last quitted him near Lakhnao, on the 16th of May. From that date to the end of August he continued his operations, beating the rebels in every encounter, and finally halting at Súltánpur. There he thought it wise to suspend operations till the close of the rainy season. He resumed them in the middle of October.

Meanwhile, there had been some fighting in Rohilkhand. At Philibhít it became known that the rebels were concentrated in force at Nuriah. Thence they were dislodged by a force commanded by Captain Sam Browne, under circumstances of great gallantry, which gained for that officer the coveted cross. In the turbulent district of Ázamgarh, too, the rebels had again raised their heads. They were, however, cleared from the district by a force under Brigadier Berkeley, who, pushing his success, recovered Eastern Oudh as far as Súltánpur, where he touched Hope Grant's force. Rowcroft, meanwhile, with his own troops and the sailors of the Pearl brigade, had defeated the rebels at Amorhá and Harhá; Eveleigh had punished them between Husénganj and Mohan; Dawson had captured Sandélá. The British forces rested during two months of the rainy season, but that period was employed by sending Sikhs in steamers up the Ganges to clear the banks of that river.

In October operations were resumed. The rebels

  1. Of this episode Colonel Meadows Taylor has written a most interesting account: Story of My Life.