His
course was to be traced by the heaps of slaughtered enemies lying thick
upon the platforms; and alas! by the corpses of most of the gallant
men who followed him!--when at length he effected his lodgment, and the
dastardly enemy, who dared not to confront him with arms, let loose
upon him the tigers and lions of Scindiah's menagerie. This meritorious
officer destroyed, with his own hand, four of the largest and most
ferocious animals, and the rest, awed by the indomitable majesty of
BRITISH VALOR, shrank back to their dens. Thomas Higgory, a private,
and Runty Goss, havildar, were the only two who remained out of the nine
hundred who followed Lieutenant Gahagan. Honor to them! honor and tears
for the brave men who perished on that awful day!"
*****
I have copied this, word for word, from the Bengal Hurkaru of September
24, 1803: and anybody who has the slightest doubt as to the statement,
may refer to the paper itself.
And here I must pause to give thanks to Fortune, which so marvellously
preserved me, Sergeant-Major Higgory, and Runty Goss. Were I to say that
any valor of ours had carried us unhurt through this tremendous
combat, the reader would laugh me to scorn. No: though my narrative is
extraordinary, it is nevertheless authentic; and never, never would
I sacrifice truth for the mere sake of effect.
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