ind of evil and debauchery.

Later in the day the enemy made a determined attack on our centre,
which was checked by Brigadier Little advancing with the 9th Lancers
and some guns. On a few rounds being fired, they retired from the
immediate neighbourhood of the canal, and in the belief that there
would be no further trouble that day, the Cavalry and Artillery
returned to the Martiniere; but the guns were hardly unlimbered before
heavy firing was heard from the direction of Banks's house.

I galloped off with Mayne to ascertain the cause. Some little distance
from the canal we separated, Mayne going to the left, I to the right.
I found the piquets hotly engaged, and the officer in command begged
me to get him some assistance. I returned to Hope Grant to report
what was going on, but on the way I met the supports coming up, and
presently they were followed by the remainder of Hope's and Russell's
brigades. Russell had, early in the day, with soldierly instinct,
seized two villages a little above the bridge to the north of Banks's
house; this enabled him to bring a fire to bear upon the enemy as
they advanced, and effectually prevented their turning our left. Hope
opened fire with Remmington's troop, Bourchier's battery, and some of
Peel's 24-pounders, and as soon as he found it had taken effect and
the rebels were shaken, he proceeded to push them across the canal and
finally drove them off with considerable loss.

Hope's and Russell's united action, by which our left flank was
secured, was most timely, for had it been turned, our long line
of camels, laden with ammunition, and the immense string of carts
carrying supplies, would in all probability have been captured. As it
was, the rear guard, under Lieutenant-Colonel Ewart,[6] of the 93rd
Highlanders, had a hot time of it; it was frequently attacked, and its
progress was so slow that it was more than twenty-four hours between
the Alambagh and the Dilkusha.

At the conclusion of the fight I heard, with great grief, that my poor
friend Mayne had been killed, shot through the breast a few seconds
after he had left me. He was seen to turn his horse, and, after going
a short distance, fall to the ground; when picked up he was quite
dead. This was all I could learn. No one was able to tell me where his
body had been taken, and I looked for it myself all that evening in
vain.

At daybreak the next morning, accompanied by Arthur Bunny, the cheery
Adjutant of Horse Artille