ACCIDENT TO THE ITtH DRAGOONS. 19 



but I afterwards saw it would have been an 

 awkward place to have got into. A terrible ac- 

 cident occurred during the Mahratta and Pin- 

 darrie campaign of 1817-18, by which several 

 men of H. M. 17th Dragoons lost their lives. A 

 squadron or more of the regiment was with the 

 advanced guard, and with it a couple of Gal- 

 loper Guns. Marching in the dark on the out- 

 skirts of a village, the troops passed close to a 

 well without any parapet around it ; the horses 

 and limber cleared the well ; but unhappily one 

 of the gun-wheels slipped in, down went the 

 gun, its weight dragging the limber and horses 

 after it. A staff-officer who was present de- 

 scribed the scene as most heart-rending; the 

 night was pitch-dark, and nothing could be dis- 

 cerned till a light was procured from the vil- 

 lage. For a few moments agonizing screams 

 of both men and horses rent the air; but the 

 former soon ceased, though the struggling of 

 the horses continued, No human aid could 

 avail, and three dreadful hours crept away ; but 

 at length morning dawned upon that scene of 

 horror. Five fine soldiers were lost to the 

 regiment ; those upon the limber, if not killed 

 by the fall, must have been crushed to death at 



