The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-22 00:00:00

garrison. So far -therefow it was .impossible to
know what course this form would adopt; but the
Rajah was of opinion that his adherents were strong
enough to compel anydissentients to obey his orders,
and he declared that he had no doubt he could hand
Ili over eke. fort, Ahe guns, and the arms of his. fol-
lowers. His Vakeel or minister was despatched to
make known to the garrison the fact of the Rajah's
submission and the surrender by him of his fort and
materiel of war. After a long interview, the Rajah
was taken by Major_ Barrow to Lord Clyde, who re-
ceived, him in his dinner. tent in the presence of the
chief of his staff and one or two officers. The Com-
mander-in-Chief was no doubt rather distiPpeinted
when he heard of, the real state of the case. The
Rajah, indeed, had surrendered, and so far had com-
plied with, the terms granted to him; but his fort
was still in the hands of those who might turn out
to be our enem4.,s, and Some of whom were -certainly
guilty sepoys, whose escape it was most desirable to
prevent. Besides, they might be making use of
this time to drag away the guns, and to desert
through the dense jungles which encloSed one side of
the fort. Still, we could not preci.pitate matters by
attaeking the place 'before the Rajah had tested his
authority. We had promised not to close in upon
Amethie for the day, so that a Considerable time
would be afforded to the .Sepoys to take to flight,
which, indeed, we could not prevent under any
circumstances, as the force at our command could
not surround the place, one side of which, as
already stated, melts, as it were, into a formidable
swampy jungle, extending many miles towards the
south-west, through which are paths known only
to a few natives. When the visit to Lord Clyde
was over the Rajah again went to Major Barrow,
and messengers were despatched to the fort with
instructions as to the surrender of the place ' • but
Lall Madho remained in the neighbourhood of our
camp with one of his friends, not daring to show
himself among his followers. The chief of a neigh-
bouring fort also came in and made his submission
to Mr. Carnegy, the Assistant-Commissioner of his
district. This gentleman, " Pretty Poll Singh" by
name (I am not quite sure about the spelling),
arrived in a palanquin, preceded by a bearer with a
large silver mace, and followed by servants and
men armed with flint carbines and matchlocks. He
is a tall, stout man, of a stern face, ornamented b
snow-white moustaches, and was dressed in rich
shawls and stuffs—making a far greater show than
the Rajah, as was natural from the circumstances
under which the latter came in. He sat in his
litter at the end of the " street," smoking his
hookah, and surveying the few promenaders be-
tween the canvass houses with great equanimity.
In his train came a kackery, in which lay an old
iron carronade much the worse for age, a six-bar-
relled revolving matchloek, several flint pistols in
various stages of decomposition, some bearing
marks of being recently burnished, half-a-dozen
swords, and a -few old firelocks, mostly fired by
matches. These were his arms, of which he pro-
fessed to have made a total surrender, but
I fear our friend of the simple and eccentric
name was playing the gay deceiver, and that
in various )eels and ponds and wells there are
lying now (in a different sense from the talookdar's
lying) some of those four or five cannon as to which
the Commissioner made such tender inquiries in
vain, as well as those stands of arms which the chief
is believed to have possessed. What the result of
these inquiries may be it is difficult to say. The
talookdar declared himself pleased at the surrender
•of his arms to the Queen's Government, and as a
token of goodwill brought in plenty of lambs, kids,
fresh vegetables, and such like pastoral and Oriental
blandishments.
Nor was he our only conquest this morning.
Several landholders of greater or less importance
presented themielves, and Humrunt Singh, of Kal-
likunker, on the Ganges, who was recently amusing
himself by plumping round shot into our steamers,
is now quite domesticated on the premises, and
waddles up and down our street in a pleasant free-
and-easy manner quite charming to behold. One
looks at him very much with the same sensations as
Mr. Briggs must have felt when he had Rarey-fied
his horse, and reduced him to complete submission.
He is an agreeable old person, very like a Turkish
pasha, being stout and bow-legged, salaams genially
to us all, and seems altogether the last man in the
world who would regard the firing of 12-pounders,
double-shotted, against passenger boats as an agree-
able pastime. Pretty Poll Singh is not nearly
so nice a person. Indeed, if stories be true, our
friend, whose name suggests such nice reminis-
cences of little boys in the street addressing the
feathered captives of one's household through the
domestic area railings, was in times gone by a per-
son of the most perverted notions on the great
questions involved in the observance of the laws
of real and personal property. Whenever our
officers went out shooting in this district, they were
always enjoined to " look out for Pretty Poll
Singh' castle. By Jove, if he sees you he'll be
down uponyou. The creature was a bird of prey,
and maintained his rights of sporting with more
than the tenacity of a Norfolk parson. No doubt,
he will make an admirable subject of the Queen's
but I would not advise any one to shoot over his
tiger preserves without leave, for the process in his
courts was, and may be yet, very, sharp and very
short. A police thannah may clip his wings and
cut his claws.
Yesterday, as we were breakfasting on the
ground, under some trees, the instinct of our syces
told them—for they could not see it—that there
was a stack of forage inside the wooded enclosure,
where we lay like serpents on our bellies, devour-
ing our meal. In a very few minutes the stack was
resolved into peripatetic bundles or trusses suffi-
ciently large to conceal the bearers to the calf of
the leg, which were being duly carried off for the
horses, when Major Barrow interfered and ordered
them to put down their loads. He was at once
obeyed, and I was pandering on the wonder of the
farmer, when he came back, at finding his huge
stack scattered all over the ground in separate
heaps, when the Major's departing left the ground
to the syces, who, at once reappearing from among
the trees through which they had vanished, gathered
up their trusses and walked off with them uninter-
ruptedly. Flogging does no good. If the whole
army were turned into provost-marshals' assistants,
or flagellators under the orders of the civil magis-
trate, they could not flog all the offenders. Sowars
charge over the plains in vain. Capt. Thomson was
told by the Commander-in-Chief that he might have
any-nuinber of cavalry -he required -to -prevent or
arrest depredators, 'for Lord 'Clyde has all an old
soldier's detestation- of- plundering ; but still the
work goes bravely on. Last night a village was set
on fite,-and the flames, lighted' the heavens in
front of the camp. Th&villagers arc apprehensive
of being punished if they defend their property, for
theyi are tahl that if they fire A shot 4gaiAlt ustbey
are deemed destruction,. but they. are -now in-
formed they may protect their gepl>, chattels, and
crops -against camp folle,wers,•tkongh they must not
use force; to .check. any depredations pn the part of
soldiers, as the latter will be puni§hed by the mili-
tary authorities. At present, however, lie soldiers
are not guilty of any such offences. One or more
of our camp followers dead 14 the field near the
cairn this morning, but g is inapassiblg to say whe-
ther thoenetny's Sowars, some of:w.liOmwerecaper-
ing about near our posts, or the villagers resisting
plunder, 13eipetrated the deed• ,Certainly; the Oude
fanner; has been plaCed'in anuist anxious position
during ;the Jast',l2 months. !Left at the inercy of the
rebel, chiefs; he :waft compelled, no matter what his
inclinations, topay-taxes and.revenue to the rebels.
If he fled, all his property was taken and his land
cetifiseatedo:•Wherei indeed,,could. he fly? If he re-
mained hevas called upon. for military, service.. At
the same time he knew that: when, our power was
restored,he was liable .to be hanged, and that he
would have to -pay the revenue over ;again. Surely
he: must have thout,ht his deities ;unkind and his
lot miserable ! . ,
Of this, I can
,say ajor Barrow's mes-
sengers.eould gain na, admittance ,te the ,fort. . The
gates were closed all day .The Rajah either had,
or pretended hp had, no communication from inside
the ket., Orders were icciardingl3:7;giyen for, the al)»
proactkieEpur colguato tlie,MlOwing,morning.

, .
• On.the !morning of the 11th, at daybreak, all the
troops of the three different columns were paraded,
ready for action, in front of their respective camps.
Thus the pickets of the enemy (if they had any)
would have seen the cavalry, infantry, and artil-
lery of Sir Hope Grant's force arrayed against
them on the north. Not quite two miles to the
left flank they would have beheld the troops under
the Commander-in-Chief in person, and again, at
right angles to the left flank of that little
army, would have been visible the squadrons,
battalions, and guns of the force under Brigadier
Wetherall, about three miles intervening, which
would have been speedily filledup by the expansion
of the troops into line intervening between the two
columns. But on the southward and westward of
the fort the enemy would have beheld their sure
allies extending as far as the eye could reach. There
—up to the parapets of the place—and entering the
Rajah's courtyard, were files dense and firm as iron
alw, upon
ae
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ffiomteniui
of prickly thorn, adamantine shrub, and bamboo,
setn
aw
tcto
tracks.
el column
Is. ut
steal
milesbeastt
he
deviousbo re
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ehsyhorizon,thato
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iagnhl dd
its visible line, spreading and growing wider and
denser, lay this safe refuge of the enemy. And they
sought it. Hour after hour passed away in impati-
ence, the troops standing to their arms, officers
(booted and spurred) walking up and down the
streets of the camp, asking for news in vain, for
news there was none, each man enforcing the rea-
s9ns why he thought the enemy -would fight or
would not fight, as the case might be. Major BarroW
still confident "it would all be right," other poll-