well-provided with fortified places and with military stores. The first attempts against them met with but poor success, and 500 of them stormed the police-station in broad daylight and released some of their friends who had been captured and confined there. About the 12th of July Mr. Venables, having managed to obtain some more (apparently faithful) sepoys, attacked the Rajputs of the Palwár clan at Koilsa. But the sepoys misconducted themselves, and Venables was forced to fall back on Azamgarh, pursued by the enemy at a respectful distance. By the 18th they had arrived, however, within two miles of the city. At this juncture, fortunately, Messrs. Davies and James Simson, civil officers, came in, bringing with them ten military officers marching to join the Gurkha force sent down from Nipal; twenty-five sabres 12th Irregular Cavalry, and a raw levy from Benares under Captain Catania. The bulk of the 65th men at the same time returned to their head-quarters at Gházipur. With the force that remained the attack was resumed, while Mr. Simson remained at Azamgarh with Catania's men for the protection of the public offices, breastworks having been thrown up across the approaches. Some newly-raised matchlockmen were also posted in various parts of the town. Again was Venables doomed to disappointment; he found the enemy too strongly posted for attack. Presently he had to assume the defensive; the defence became a retreat; but for his gun and some of his horsemen he would scarcely have been able to retire, as he did, without serious loss. During the night the question of retreat on Gházipur was seriously discussed, and the only voices for remaining are said to have been those of James Simson, Lieutenant Havelock, and Venables himself; but in the morning the minds of the defenders of . Azamgarh were relieved by finding that the enemy had also had their misgivings, and had melted away.

The fight of the day before had been long, and the loss of the enemy turned out to have been more severe than had been at first supposed. The gun had done fatal service with its frequent

discharges of grape; the horsemen, led by Venables and Dunn, had used their sabres well; the Palwárs had retired to their villages with the loss of two hundred and fifty of their best

men.

After this matters went on quietly till the 28th July, when news arrived of the mutiny of the 12th Cavalry at Sigaoli; and then it was felt that no confidence could be reposed in the detachment of that regiment at Azamgarh. Next day came news of the mutiny at Dinapore, together with a note from Mr. Tucker, the Commissioner at Benares, authorising evacuation, which was accordingly decided on. It was a dreary march, followed by a long line of carts, in which the townspeople were removing their property. The tide of rapine closed on their departure, and the town was given up to plunder before the troops were well clear of the suburbs. With some difficulties and alarms the column achieved its march to Gházipur; but behind them all was confusion. The faithful native employés having shared the evacuation and retreat, there was no material left for a committee of safety. The police-stations, with two exceptions, were deserted by their occupants; the Palwárs seized the town and levied a pecuniary requisition. It deserves to be mentioned that the native officials of Nagra and Muhamadábád continued to conduct the business of their posts. Their names were Asghar Ali and Muhamad Taki.

On the 20th August the Gurkhas arrived under Colonel Wroughton, followed on the 3rd September by Messrs. Wynyard and Birch, C.S.; and on the 20th September Wynyard and Venables, accompanied by a Gurkha force under Colonel Shamshir Singh and Captain Boileau, fought the brilliant action at Mandori (described by Malleson, vol. ii. p. 317 ff.), in which they killed nearly three hundred of the enemy and took three guns. On. this occasion Venables helped to take the first gun, and killed three rebels with his own hand. No wonder if the rebels offered a reward for his head. Mr. Bird soon after took another party of Gurkhas out, who demolished two forts and reoccupied the

station of Mahul; and this, for the time, restored the Government throughout the district.

Soon after Mr. Pollock assumed charge, and-while amusing the Palwárs with negotiations-fell upon the Gorakhpur rebels who had been driven towards him by the Gurkhas. Aided by the fire of a gun well-directed by Mr. Hercules Ross, C.S., Mr. Pollock drove them across the river; and then, turning his attention to the Palwárs, set out at the head of a sufficient force, to make a tour through their country. Having made certain examples of them and demolished some of their strong places, he brought them to terms; and although the district was afterwards twice invaded, the Palwárs never gave any further trouble. The remaining operations in the district of Azamgarh were chiefly military; and the successful campaigns of Longden, Lugard, and Lord Mark Kerr have been amply described by the accomplished historian of the mutiny. The town-which had been occupied by the notorious Kunwar Singh-was finally recovered on the 14th April 1858; but the victory was dearly bought by the death of the gallant Venables, who was mortally wounded in the pursuit of the enemy on that occasion. Kunwar Singh was soon after driven out of the district, in which order was promptly and permanently restored.

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CHAPTER VIII.

GHÁZIPUR, JAUNPUR, AND MIRZápur.

CONSIDERABLE space has been given to Azamgarh, the events there having been of a peculiar type. The original outbreak there exercised a powerful influence on events in the neighbouring districts, especially Benares; and that most important post itself owed its ultimate safety to the final success of the military leaders in Azamgarh, directed and aided by the fighting planters. We have now to see what had been going on in the remaining districts.

The events in the district of Gházipur may be disposed of briefly. Of the chief, Mr. A. Ross, the Commissioner-Mr. F. Gubbins-observes that, "his prudence and firmness as magistrate had a great effect in preserving the peace of his jurisdiction." From the circumstances mentioned in the opening description this had always been a troublesome district to manage; and minor disturbances soon broke out. Luckily, in spite of the Treasury being full of cash, the troops-the 65th Native Infantry-did not mutiny as was so generally the case elsewhere. But the mutiny at Azamgarh had its effect there, no less than at Benares. The fugitives from Azamgarh arrived, as we have seen, in safety, but the district rose behind them; by the 6th of June civil war became almost universal throughout the Ghazipur district. "The police were helpless, and robberies were perpetrated to the very door of the Court House The treasure was sent into Benares by steamer;

itself."

"martial law was proclaimed," implying the subordination of the civil power; and military officers conducted expeditions to the worst-behaved parts of the district where they inflicted exemplary punishment; by the 16th order seemed in a fair way to being restored. On the 7th July, however, Mr. Bax had to take a party (native horsemen and a handful of British troops) for the protection of an indigo factory belonging to a Mr. Matthews, and to destroy a recalcitrant village. On the 14th came news of the outbreak of Kunwar Singh at Arrah, followed on the 27th by the yet more disquieting announcement of the mutiny of the native garrison at Dinapore. The 65th had already announced that their own loyalty was only conterminous with that of their brethren at this station, so that the rising there might be taken as the signal for a rising at Gházipur. "Still they stood in unstable loyalty; why, no one knows." Mr. Bax proceeded with Vincent Eyre to Arrah, and the news of the memorable relief of Arrah was followed up by the disarming of the 65th, which was effected without bloodshed. Mr. Ross had the satisfaction (in which he stood almost alone among his. colleagues at the time) of being able to carry on his duties in comparative tranquillity. A part of those duties was, however, of extraordinary character and exceptional usefulness-namely the collection of stores, supplies, and carriage for the European troops constantly hurrying westward. These modest labours deserved, perhaps, more recognition than they have hitherto received.

In 1858 trouble was renewed. Eastern Gházipur became demoralised by the wake of Kunwar Singh's final retreat. "Far from the centre station, unpierced by roads, bounded by two great rivers, by crossing either of which the fugitives would be in another province and under another law, that tract seemed marked out for an Alsatia." The conditions and elements of disturbance that had always characterised it, and under which the police, even in the most tranquil times, had always been unequal to their work, now broke forth in full conflagration,