their way. A
few discharges from the field pieces--those in the castle had been
ordered to be silent until the raising of a white flag gave them the
signal to open fire--checked the advance of the horsemen, and these
waited until their infantry should arrive.

The force of Murari Reo was, at that time, the most formidable of any
purely native army of Southern India. Recruited from desperadoes from
all the Mahratta tribes, well disciplined by its leader, it had more
than once fought, without defeat, against bodies of Europeans; while
it had, in all cases, obtained easy victories over other native
armies.

Presently the horsemen opened, and a compact body of three thousand
Mahratta infantry, accompanied by an equal number of the irregulars of
the rajah's brother, advanced to the attack; while the cavalry at
their sides swept down upon the flanks of the rajah's position, and
thirty pieces of artillery opened fire.

Not a shot was fired in return, Charlie ordering his men to lie down
behind the breastworks, until they received the word of command to
show themselves. The Mahratta horsemen, compelled by the bends of the
stream to keep near the foot of the slopes, came forward in gallant
style; until suddenly, from every wall and every clump of bushes on
the slopes above them, a tremendous fire of musketry broke out, while
the twelve field guns, six of which were posted on either side of
Charlie's centre, poured a destructive fire into them. So deadly was
the rain of iron and lead that the Mahratta horsemen instantly drew
bridle and, leaving the ground strewn with their dead, galloped back.

By this time the infantry, covered by the fire of their artillery, had
reached the stream. This was waist deep, and the banks were some two
feet above its level. As they scrambled up after crossing it, from the
line of embankment in front of them a tremendous fire was opened.
Although mowed down in scores, the seasoned warriors of the Mahratta
chief, cheered on by his voice as, recklessly exposing himself, he
rode among them, pressed forward. Ever increasing numbers gained a
footing across the stream, those in front keeping up a heavy fire at
the breastwork, whose face was ploughed by their cannon shot.

As they advanced the guns of the castle opened fire, not upon those in
front, for these were too near the line of entrenchment, but upon the
struggling mass still crossing the stream, into which a ceaseless fire
of musketry was pour