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dreadful effects. Encamped in a low situation, on the borders 

 of a lake formed to collect the surrounding water, we found our- 

 selves in a few hours in a liquid plain. The tent-pins giving way, 

 in a loose soil, the tents fell down and left the whole army exposed 

 to the contending elements. It requires a lively imagination to 

 conceive the situation of an hundred thousand human beings of 

 every description, with more than two hundred thousand elephants, 

 camels, horses, and oxen, suddenly overwhelmed by this dreadful 

 storm, in a strange country, without any knowledge of high or 

 low ground; the whole being covered by an immense lake, and 

 surrounded by thick darkness, which prevented our distinguishing 

 a single object, except such as the vivid glare of lightning displayed 

 in horrible forms. No language can describe the wreck of a large 

 encampment thus instantaneously destroyed, and covered with 

 water; amid the cries of old men and helpless women, terrified 

 by the piercing shrieks of their expiring children, unable to afford 

 them relief. During this dreadful night more than two hundred 

 persons and three thousand cattle perished, and the morning dawn 

 exhibited a shocking spectacle. Among those who fell a sacrifice 

 was the little foundling from the enemy's camp. 



Such was the general situation of the army, such the conclu- 

 sion of the campaign. As secretary to the commanding officer, I 

 was always one of his family, and generally slept in his tent. At this 

 time he was ill with a violent fever, and on the commencement of 

 the storm had been removed in his palanquin to the village: I 

 endeavoured to follow him; but up to my knees in water, and 

 often plunging into holes much deeper, I was compelled to return 

 to the tent; there being left alone, and perceiving the water 



