rge. Colonel Cleland led his squadron of 126 Lancers of
the 9th full at the advancing mass, the 14th Bengal Lancers, 44 in
number, following in his wake. On the right, Captain Gough, with his
troop of the 9th, also took his men into action at the enemy's left
flank. Two hundred and twenty men, however, against 10,000 could
scarcely be expected to conquer. The three bodies of cavalry
disappeared in a cloud of dust. They were received with a terrific
fire, which killed many horses and men, and, charging bravely on into
the midst of the enemy's infantry, were surrounded, and their progress
blocked by sheer weight of numbers. The _melee_ was a desperate one.
Many of the soldiers were struck from their horses. Some were dragged
up again by their comrades, others were killed upon the ground. The
chaplain of the force, the Reverend Mr Adams, had accompanied the
troopers in the charge, and extricated one man from the midst of the
enemy under a heavy fire, for which he was recommended for the Victoria
Cross.

When the dust cleared away, it was seen that the cavalry charge had made
no impression upon the enemy, who were still steadily advancing across
the fields. The Lancers had fallen back, having suffered terribly. Two
of their officers, Lieutenants Hersee and Ricardo, had been left on the
ground dead, with sixteen of their men. The colonel and Lieutenant
Mackenzie were both wounded, as were seven of the troopers. This
squadron rallied upon Captain Gough's troop, which had kept better
together, and still held its post between the guns and the enemy. A
second charge was ordered; but it was not pushed home, the country being
of extraordinary difficulty for cavalry, owing to the water-courses
which cut it up. As Major Smith Wyndham was falling back with his two
guns, which had been advanced after the first charge, he found one of
the other guns stuck in a water-course. The greatest efforts of the
remaining horses were insufficient to draw it from the mire in which it
was bogged. Lieutenant Hardy was killed by a shot through the head, and
the gun was abandoned. The other three guns were taken back 400 or 500
yards farther. They were then stopped by a channel, deeper and steeper
than any which had been before met, and here they became hopelessly
bogged. They were spiked and left in the water, and the drivers and
gunners moved off with the cavalry just as the long line of the enemy
came upon them.

General Macphe