INSURRECTION AT BENARES. 
177 
resolution. It was well supplied with water, and, as 
the number of troops required to make up the com- 
plement of the garrison was small, there was always 
a large stock of provisions laid up against an emer- 
gency, so that the means of resistance might be almost 
said to have been unlimited. 
After Cheit Singh had fled to Bidzee Gur, he was soon 
apprised of the lukewarmness of the native princes in 
his cause, and of the disinclination on the part of his 
troops to continue longer in the service of a man 
whose fortunes appeared to be already desperate. So 
complete had been the panic among his raw militia, 
by the unexpected capture of Pateeta and the pass 
behind Lutteefpoor, that the whole of them, to a man, 
disbanded and fled to their homes. So general indeed 
was the consternation, that Sutteesgur, a fort a few 
miles from Lutteefpoor, together with the palace of 
Ramnagur, were abandoned the same evening, and the 
whole country was as completely restored in a few 
hours from a state of the most confirmed revolt to that 
of the most perfect allegiance, as if the rough aspect of 
war had never disturbed the ordinary serenity of its 
repose. On the morning after Major Crabb had se- 
cured the pass behind Lutteefpoor, he proceeded to 
that fortress with a determination to compel its sur- 
render, when, to his surprise and mortification, he 
found it abandoned. He had not calculated upon 
such an utter want of spirit on the part of the rebel 
Zemeendar, but rather expected that he would at least 
have made something like an energetic resistance 
before submitting to be driven to his last resource ; 
