196 WILD MEN AND WILD BEASTS. 



Thuggee Department, with his wife and child, who had joined 

 me at the Nerbudda. On the 1st of July they wished to go 

 into Mhow, and having sent out a fresh horse for their buggy 

 half-way on the road, I saw them depart, and went out for 

 my usual morning drive. 



I returned, and was sitting at breakfast, when I heard the 

 sound of heavy guns in the direction of Mhow. The firing 

 proceeded from Indore, fourteen miles beyond Mhow, where 

 Holkar's guns had opened on the British Eesidency, raking 

 with their fire the horses of the Bhopal Cavalry, as they stood 

 at their pickets, within a square of four detached buildings, 

 composing the Eesidency stables. The men of the Bhopal 

 artillery and cavalry, and of the Bheel corps, were not in 

 the conspiracy, and were scattered at the time throughout 

 the cantonment. At the same moment a ruffianly rabble from 

 the town of Indore, ripe for plunder and bloodshed, came rush- 

 ing into the cantonment, eager for the sack of the treasury. 



The European officers of the Malwa and Bhopal Contin- 

 gent Infantry ran to their men, but were warned off, with 

 threats and menaces. The guns of the Bhopal Contingent, 

 two in number, which had been posted close to the Eesidency, 

 replied to the fire of the attacking party, while a number of 

 the Sikh cavalry troop of the same force, having succeeded 

 in cutting away their horses from their pickets, rallied round 

 Colonel Travers. The men of the Bheel corps who could be 

 got together were drawn into the Eesidency ; but these 

 denizens of the wilderness seemed more taken up with the 

 survey of the various objects of European art and luxury 

 around them, and the contemplation of themselves in the large 

 mirrors, than with any thoughts of the defence of the place. 

 Colonel Travers, having got together some of his Sikhs, led 

 a gallant charge on the Indore guns, sabring and driving on 



