THE BOON 249 



before the retreat was ordered many had fallen, and 

 among them Sir Rollo himself. He fell shot dead by 

 a ball from a matchlock. 



A second attack was arranged, but in the meantime 

 a discovery was made which rendered it unnecessary. 

 There was no spring or well within the fort. The 

 Goorkhas depended for their supply of water on a 

 stream at some little distance without ; the stream was 

 conveyed to the fort by a small channel cut in the hill- 

 side ; this channel was accidentally found, and the 

 stream diverted. Without a supply of water the fort 

 was untenable. In the course of the night the Goorkhas 

 abandoned it; in the morning the fort was found empty, 

 and the Goorkhas in full retreat and already far away 

 among the mountains. 



The English officers and soldiers who fell in the 

 attack on the fort were buried in the plain before it. 

 The white monuments erected over their graves can 

 be seen from some of the houses at Dehra. Con- 

 nected with these graves there is related a rather 

 ghastly story. The dead were buried hastily and 

 without coffins, wrapped only in their cotton quilted 

 bed coverlets. In the hurry their graves were dug none 

 too deep. A few days after it was noticed that the 

 ground all around the graves was strewed over with 

 small white fragments. An examination was made, 

 and it was then discovered that some animals had 

 burrowed down to the bottom of one of the shallow 

 graves, had dragged up the corpse or portions of it, 

 and devoured them. The white fragments that had 

 attracted attention were those of the cotton wool of 



