of this formidable offender, and Captain Hollings, the second
in command of the 2nd battalion of Oude local infantry, sent
intelligencers to trace him.

They ascertained that he had, with a few followers, taken up a
position two hundred yards to the north of the village of Ahroree, in
a jungle of palas-trees and brushwood in the Bangur district, about
twenty-eight miles to the south-west of Seetapoor, where that
battalion was cantoned, and about fourteen miles west from Neemkar.
Captain Hollings made his arrangements to surprise this party; and on
the evening of the 3rd of July 1841, he marched from Neemkar at the
head of three companies of that battalion, and a little before
midnight he came within three-quarters of a mile of the rebel's post.
After halting his party for a short time, to enable the officers and
sipahees to throw off all superfluous clothing and utensils, Captain
Hollings moved on to the attack. When the advanced guard reached the
outskirts of the robber's position about midnight, they were first
challenged and then fired upon by the sentries. The subadar in
command of this advance guard fell dead, and a non-commissioned
officer and a sipahee severely wounded.

The whole party now fired in upon the gang and rushed on. One of the
robbers was shot, and the rest all escaped out on the opposite side
of the jungle. The sipahees believing, since the surprise had been
complete, that the robbers must have left all their wealth behind
them, dispersed, as soon as the firing ceased and the robbers
disappeared, to get every man as much as he could. While thus engaged
they were surrounded by the Gohar, (or body of auxiliaries which
these landholders send to each other's aid on the concerted signal,)
and fired in upon from the front, and both right and left flanks.
Taken by surprise, they collected together in disorder, while the
assailants from the front and sides continued to pour in their fire
upon them; and they were obliged to retire in haste and confusion,
closely followed by the auxiliaries, who gained confidence, and
pressed closer as their number increased by the quotas they received
from the villages the detachment had to pass in their retreat.

All efforts on the part of Captain Hollings to preserve order in the
ranks were vain. His men returned the fire of their pursuers, but
without aim or effect. At the head of the auxiliaries were Punchum
Sing, of Ahroree, and Mirza Akbar Beg, of Deureea; and they w