ck as the
savage freebooters whose name, a hundred years ago, was the terror of
Northern India. But the change has been wrought by strong and kindly
government and by strict military discipline under sympathetic
officers whom the troops love and respect.' (Sir Lepel Griffin,
_Ranjit Singh_, p. 37.)

11. Gerard Lake was born on the 27th July, 1744, and entered the army
before he was fourteen. He served in the Seven Years' War in Germany,
in the American War, in the French campaign of 1793, and against the
Irish rebels in 1798. In the year 1801 he became Commander-in-Chief
in India, and proceeded to Cawnpore, then our frontier station. Two
years later the second Maratha War began, and gave General Lake the
opportunity of winning a series of brilliant victories. In rapid
succession he defeated the enemy at Koil, Aligarh, Delhi (the battle
alluded to in the text), Agra, and Laswari. Next year, 1804, the
glorious record was marred by the disaster to Colonel Monson's force,
but this was quickly avenged by the decisive victories of Dig and
Farrukhabad, which shattered Holkar's power. The year 1805 saw
General Lake's one personal failure, the unsuccessful siege of
Bharatpur. The Commander-in-Chief then resumed the pursuit of Holkar,
and forced him to surrender. He sailed for England in February, 1807,
and on his arrival at home was created a Viscount. On the 21st
February, 1808, he died. (Pearse, _Memoir of the Life and Military
Services of Viscount Lake_. London, Blackwood, 1908.) The village of
Patparganj, nearly due east from Humayun's Tomb, marks the site of
the battle. Fanshawe (p. 70) gives a plan.

12. The banyan is the _Ficus indica_, or _Urostigma bengalense_; the
'pipal' is _Ficus religiosa_, or _Urostigma religiosum_; and the
tamarind is the _Tamarindus indica_, or _occidentalis_, or
_officinalis_.

13. The history of the Begam is given in Chapter 76, _post_.

CHAPTER 71

The Station of Meerut--'Atalis' who Dance and Sing gratuitously for
the Benefit of the Poor.

On the 30th,[1] we went on twelve miles to Meerut, and encamped close
to the Suraj Kund, so called after Suraj-mal, the Jat chief of Dig,
whose tomb I have described at Govardhan.[2] He built here a very
large tank, at the recommendation of the spirit of a Hindoo saint,
Manohar Nath, whose remains had been burned here more than two
hundred years before, and whose spirit appeared to the Jat chief in a
dream, as he was encamped here with his