d
tact, and insisted on a regular formation being kept by the troops,
instead of the desultory style of action in vogue during previous
sorties. There was, however, some very hard fighting in the gardens and
serais, where we were received by a storm of bullets; but the men being
persuaded to keep well under cover, the losses were not very serious,
the casualties amounting in all to about ninety officers and men.[2] The
enemy, as usual, suffered severely, more especially from the fire of our
field-guns, which mowed them down when collected in groups of two and
three hundred together.

[Illustration: FROM THE SMALL PICKET, SABZI MANDI, LOOKING TOWARDS
KISHENGANJ.]

I was amused on this day, as well as on previous sorties, by seeing the
eagerness with which the soldiers, European, Sikh, and Goorkha, rifled
the bodies of the slain sepoys. These last had plundered the city
inhabitants of all they could find in money and jewels, and having no
place of safety (from the anarchy which prevailed in Delhi) in which to
deposit their loot, they one and all invariably carried their treasure
about with them, concealed in the kammerbund folds of muslin or linen
rolled round the waist. On the fall of a mutineer, a rush would be made
by the men to secure the coveted loot, a race taking place sometimes
between a European and one of our native soldiers as to who should
first reach the body. The kammerbund was quickly torn off and the money
snatched up, a wrangle often ensuing among the men as to the division of
the booty. In this manner many soldiers succeeded, to my knowledge,
in securing large sums of money; one in particular, a Grenadier of my
regiment, after killing a sepoy, rifled the body, and, returning in
great glee to where I was standing, showed me twenty gold mohurs,
worth L32 sterling. It was a most reprehensible practice, but almost
impossible entirely to prevent, for in the loose order of fighting
which generally prevailed, the men did not break from their ranks to
accomplish their purpose, but often, in isolated groups of two and
three, were separated at times a short distance from the rest of the
combatants.

The General, we heard, was loud in his praise of the manner in which
Colonel Jones conducted the operations on this day; after the action
also, he withdrew his men in perfect order, allowing no straggling--a
great contrast to our former usual style when returning to camp after
the repulse of a sortie.

This was t