INSURRECTION AT BENARES, 
169 
done under the uncertainty of financial supplies. This 
at once restored confidence to the men, raising their 
spirits and animating their exertions; thus aiding 
Major Popham’s preparations for the immediate and 
active renewal of hostilities. It is but justice to state 
that the sepoys, notwithstanding the numerous and 
severe privations to which they had been exposed, 
did not, on any one occasion, manifest the slightest 
degree of insubordination. Their dissatisfaction was 
merely expressed in murmurs which subsided as soon 
as the cause was, though but partially, removed. 
On the 15th of September, Lieutenant Polhill 
crossed the river and joined Major Popham, whose 
force was now so considerably encreased that he was 
enabled to present something like a formidable array 
to the already discomfited and dispirited enemy. The 
entire force under his command amounted at this 
moment to about eight thousand effective men, ad- 
mirably appointed and eager for the fray, while Cheit 
Singh numbered upwards of twenty-two thousand 
regulars, besides at least twenty thousand peasants 
and homeless adventurers, who had taken up arms 
in his cause for the chances of pillage, thus swell- 
ing his army to forty thousand men ; — but these 
were, for the most part, an ill -disciplined host, and 
moreover disheartened by the apprehension of defeat. 
The best of these forces were at Pateeta, but the 
larger portion of them were with the Rajah at Lut- 
teefpoon Besides this army, Cheit Singh was in 
possession of several fortresses, two of which, Bidzee 
Gur and Lutteefpoor, were considered impregnable. 
The Rajah’s next resource was his wealth, on 
Q 
