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an indescribable confusion of dreadful yells, furious hot blasts, 

 and clouds of burning sand. The enemy now advanced so near 

 the British line that our grape-shot and musquelry did great exe- 

 cution, and some shells bursting among their cavalry compelled 

 them to make a hasty and confused, retreat; a deep narrow river 

 dividing the armies saved their guns. 



Exclusive of those who fell in action, the battle of Hyderabad 

 was attended by many catastrophes on the part of our allies. While 

 I was under the mango-tree a cannon-ball tore off the horns of 

 an ox, and another, in passing a young woman suckling her infant 

 within a few yards of me, carried it from her breast. During the 

 engagement at Hossamlee, sitting with the surgeon-major under a 

 banian-tree, at the portico of a Hindoo temple, anxious to know 

 the proceedings on the field of bailie, we desired one of the palan- 

 quin-bearers to mount on a high branch, and give us information : 

 he did so, and while making his report a cannon-ball took off his 

 head; the body falling at our feet occasioned a precipitate retreat 

 within the walls of the temple. 



The brigade major, who had frequently led Ragobah's cavalry 

 to the charge, was present at an extraordinary scene during the 

 action at Hyderabad. A detachment of cavalry advanced from 

 each of the Mahratta armies, one headed by three brothers, the 

 other by two more who had espoused a different cause: each 

 party endeavoured to convince the other they were acting wrong, 

 and during the parley both sides remained inactive. Had there 

 been a prospect of accommodation, it would have been rendered 

 ineffectual by one of the brothers who had joined the ministers 

 tauntingly observing that Ragobah was more indebted to the Eng- 



VOL. II. M 



