----G. O'G. G.,
M. H. E. I. C. S., C. I. H. A.
"But away with melancholy reminiscences. You may fancy what a figure
the Irregulars cut on a field-day--a line of five hundred black-faced,
black-dressed, black-horsed, black-bearded men--Biggs, Glogger, and
the other officers in yellow, galloping about the field like flashes of
lightning; myself enlightening them, red, solitary, and majestic, like
yon glorious orb in heaven.
"There are very few men, I presume, who have not heard of Holkar's
sudden and gallant incursion into the Dooab, in the year 1804, when we
thought that the victory of Laswaree and the brilliant success at Deeg
had completely finished him. Taking ten thousand horse he broke up his
camp at Palimbang; and the first thing General Lake heard of him was,
that he was at Putna, then at Rumpooge, then at Doncaradam--he was, in
fact, in the very heart of our territory.
"The unfortunate part of the affair was this:--His Excellency, despising
the Mahratta chieftain, had allowed him to advance about two thousand
miles in his front, and knew not in the slightest degree where to lay
hold on him. Was he at Hazarubaug? was he at Bogly Gunge? nobody knew,
and for a considerable period the movements of Lake's cavalry were quite
ambiguous, uncertain, promiscuous, and undetermined.
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