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

INDIA.

OPERATIONS IN OUDE.
(Continued from the Times of _December 21.)
-THE' CAMP, PURSAIDEPORE, Nov. 9.
At 4 ecloCk this• morning the firstbugle.sounded.
At -s,Ahe column marched froin I3eylah to Leowlie,
10 Miles distant on the road to Amethie. Those_
Indian marches, picturesque enough at the close, and
interesting when -the sun rises, are' immensely dis-
agreeable in their preliminaries and ~their com-
mendement.' Only an iron will and. long experience
can enable one to overcome the tumult which reigns
all the night before, and to snatch a few_ hours of
sleep:: The klassies;-or tent pitcher's, are .a most
peculiar-class - of
.men. The moment the tent is
pitched, their-cares. for the day are over, and all the,
day they
_sleep under -the eaves. of the tent accord-
ingilyf,but as darkness falls they get up and wander
aboiit stealthily,- tapping tent-pegs and preparing
for tho great business of their existence. • It is in
vain that order afterorder has . been. issued. to the
klassics not to touch a tent-peg till the first bugle
gonna-. It is their caste -to tap tent-pegs ;. they
are born to it, bred to it, and die to it. The whole
race of men belonging to this order would endure:
martyrdom iti-the faith that tent-pegs, when in thu
groandf are to -be -knocked out of it, and -when out
of theground. are to be knocked-into lit.. Whew
awake they can no more resist their impulses on this
head than a London pickpocket can refuse the ap-
peal of an easy pocket handkerchief. Soon, after
dusk the noise begins—tap ! tap ! tap ! far and near

like a fire of muiketry, for many a weary acre o.
canvas-covered ground. This is called tonking—
striking the long deep Indian tent-pegs on the
sides, so as to loosen them in the earth, and to pre-
pare them for easy extrication when the tent is
to be struck. The ground shakes with those
myriad knockings—one gets feverish, restless,
rushes out on the persecuting klassie, and, as he
falls in the dark over the tent ro.pes, beholds a
white, ghost-like form glide away into obscurity.
The' houts, cries, and noises of the bazaars swell
into a tempest as the sutlers prepare to pack up
their, goods and move off in the early night. Then,
long before the first of the small hours, the camels
which are to move your house and furniture are
brought close to the head of your bed. The " ships
of, the desert" are anchored beside you, and the
canvas offers no resistance either to the dreadful
vapours which come from the holds of those ships
or the sounds which rage on board. Those ships
are always in a state of mutiny. A camel's life is
a long and loud protest against the load that is put
on his back, and he wisely enters his protest be-
fore his suffering begins. I know of no sound
more sleep-destroying. Then there is the trum-
peting of elephants, the barking of dogs, the yell-
ing of jackals, and, above all these, the hideous
dissonance of the many-voiced camp. The camp
bells and gongs, too, vary in time. They are
generally a quarter of an hour or more before they
finish striking one o'clock. The smoke of the camp
fires steals into the tent and half chokes one. Look
out and you will see something like' a Fuseli's
dream of Pandemonium—blazing fires, surrounded
by black men in white clothing, moving to and
fro, with strange quaint heads of camels, elephants,
and other animals peering. through and above them.
A reddened smoke hangs in the air like a pall over
the scene. Towards morning the horses begin to
neigh, and those animals are mostly sound-lunged,
and are picketedclose behind the tents, so that—but
what is the use of my endeavouring to describe the
sights or sounds of an Indian camp ? My letter has
already exceeded the limits of newspaper capacity
in its most indulgent moments " out of the season.
It is written, too, with difficulty on a table 18 inches
high, from a stool afoot higher. We marched then
from Beylah to Dehmah, about 12 miles, where we
halted for the day. In the evening the messengers
from Amethie came in with more letters, but the
authorities, civil and military, stuck to their text,
and Lord Clyde refused to see the Vakeel at all.
On the morning or the 9th, at dawn, the columns
marched towards Amethie, and reached the plain at
the eastern angle and face of the work about 11
o'clock. Here they halted and pitched their tents
about 1 o'clock, within 21 miles of the fort ; the
jungle round which could be seen distinctly, and a
small portion of one of the interior buildings from
a knoll in our front.. About 12 30, as we wererest-
ing in a tope by a Hindoo temple, waiting for our
tents to be pitched, the sound of a heavy gun from
the fort roused us all up; again and. again the
sound of the shotted gun was heard, and some sup-
posed that it was Sir Hope Grant actually attack-
ing the place on his own account, but the appear-
ance of that gallant officer in camp with a small
escort, enabled us to learn that the guns we had
heard were fired upon him as he rode across the
plain from his camp to visit the Commander-in-
Chief. He rode over to look at the place, and the
Sepoys at once opened two guns on his escort at
500 yards distance, which forced them to retreat
abruptly. Here was a new complication—Lull
Madho's people had fired on our troops. Lord Clyde
was somewhat put out by the occurrence, which he
could have wished undone if that were possible, al-
though he was irritated against the Raj ah on account
of the tone of his last letter, in which he actually
asked for an indemnity, and took a most ridiculous
stand as to guarantees for the promises made to
him. The reply was decisive. If the Rajah did not
come in before 10 a.m. on the 10th, the British
columns would assault the place. Again the Vakeel
came in to Major Barrow, and at night it was
whispered among a few that the Rajah had sub-
mitted. In fact, at 1 p.m. on the 9th, three
British forces—one under Lord Clyde, the other
under Sir Hope Grant, and the third under Briga-
dier Wetherall—had pitched their tents, one on
each accessible face of the defences of Amethie.
The effect of this apparition oa the Rajah's Councils
may be conceived. But 12 hours before he had
been full of mighty airs; he had been talking of
his honour, of his losses, and of material guarantees.
Now he sat down and wrote as follows :
TRANSLATION OF A LETTER FROM RAJAH LULL MADHO
SINGH, OF AMETHIE, TO MAJOR. BARROW, Nov. 9.
After compliments.—" My Vakeel had not come in (from
our camp) when the cavalry of the Atiha Division (Sir
Hope Grant and his escort) neared my fort, and were fired
on-by the sepoys. When my Vakeel returned I then learnt
that you would at a distance wait my reply to your pro-
posals, and for this reason you had encamr ed one koss from
the fort. But the cavalry of the division caused the sepoys
to fire on theft by advancing so close to the fort. As I
Lowe- no wish to 43neounter-the troops of. the Goveniment,
appealllberefore beii for some pledge from Govenamemt that I
may And remove raVielf to solna other British:ol4..
the Government can chi as they ?tense with the fort-and
caniton" • ('(Sealed and signed 'by-the, Rajah.)
he'inade ample submission in words; ex:-
reused
himself for. the • act of the sepoys, very in-
genionsiy throiving the blame on us, who .had
broken. an 4,greement, and it only remained te.see
if 116. carried his' promises into effect,. That night,
as we heard, heleft the•fort stealthily, and repaired
to a village near at hand-. He neither told his.fol-
lowers of the negotiation; of the. Proclamation, nor
, of the amnesty.. He said he dared not tell them.
He left thetn'te- find it out'
• Major Barrow, havinivarralif,Ped with the Rajah
of Amethie that he slionld come in the morning.
before 10 o'clock, rode'eut'to the village appointed
AS"the place of rendezVouS, aliout 't mile in front of
our camp, accompanied by Colonel Sterling, Mili-
tary Seeretary. to. the Cornmander-in-Chiel. The
Rajah, with two or three attendants; was waiting
1O reedy° ' them on horseback. He is a squarer
uilt, powerfully-moulded man, rather below the
Middle height: His featufeii are regular, his eyes
full and intelligent ; his black: hair falls in loose
locks over his shoulders from beneath the folds,of
hisjtiarbati; and the jet of his bushy moustache,
beard, and whiskers, is not streaked by a single
gray hair. As he approached our camp, in com-
pany, with the British Commander,' the officer of
one of our pickets, seeing-the small body of horse-
men adVaiieing 'towards his' post, mounted his
I)ragoons, and rode to' thdet thtm; at which the
Rajah showed seine' Signe of "Uneasiness, but the
matter was soon explained. Soong however,‘ the
Rajah had cause for. 'greater uneasiness. Three
'vultures, which were gorging theniselves with offhl
is"'Math,' rose with ' heavy -flapping from the
The- 'Rajah's' horse, a 'Temarkably fine
animal, shied. -.violently and fell, throwing the
-tajal.l-to the ground with considerable force ; so
tik"llP--Party were obliged to continue their jour-
ney to the camp on
kind ''ivas calculated ta
foot, occutrence. of `this
produee the very deepest
IntpreSOonoli the mind of a man, like all ° Itlt ji ts'
exceedingly superstitious, and a firm believer)°
in
all signs and tokens, and his demeanour became
very subdued and sullen. His arrival in our camp
v.ras not very dignified. The soldiers of one of
the' English regiments turned out of their tents to
look at.him, and no doubt would have " chaffed"
as his Vakeel had been subjected to thate
peculiar exercise of the esprit moqueur of the
British infantry, had they been permitted to do so.
Many of: the men in full undress followed him
into head-quarters camp, and the camp foiloweis,
,syces, gra.sseutters, and peons, idling about, swelled
the crowd, which thronged the end of the main
street of the camp till it was dispersed by the sen-
. tries..:-The Rajah, wearing his shoes, entered, with
Major Barrow, inside his tent, and then the diplo-
matic and civil portion of the proceedings com-
menced. I cannot say that the results were so
satisfactory as could be desired. The Rajah stated
that he had inside his fort 1,500 sepoys of the 15th
Native Infantry and other regiments, and 2,500 of
his own followers. These men were all in perfect
ignorance of the Queen's Proclamation and of the
amnesty, as the Rajah said he did not dare to ac-
quaint them with the contents ofthose documents, nor
had he given them the least hint of the negotiations
with Government. In fact, he had left the fort by
stealth, and had concealed his surrender froln his