the city, by which it is surrounded on all sides but the west and part of the south side. Rose arrived before this place on 20 March, and at once invested it and commenced siege operations. By the 30th the enemy's guns were disabled. Rose had made arrangements to storm the city the next day, when Tántia Topi, with twenty thousand men, guns, and war material, crossed the Betwá to relieve Jánsi from the north. Rose determined to fight an action, and at the same time continue the siege and investment of Jánsi. He had only fifteen hundred men not required for the siege available to fight Tántia Topi, and of these only five hundred were Europeans. Nevertheless, he won a great victory on 1 April, capturing eighteen guns and two standards, killing upwards of fifteen hundred of the rebels, and pursuing the flying enemy for sixteen miles from camp. Anxious to profit by the discouragement which the defeat of Tántia Topi had caused the besieged, Rose stormed Jánsi on the 3rd, capturing the greater part of the city, and on the following day the remainder. The fort was abandoned the same evening, and on the 5th was occupied by Rose without further resistance. For seventeen days and nights Rose's force had known no repose. To this constant strain was added exposure to great heat. But the discipline and spirit of the troops enabled them to defeat a large army and take the strongest fortress of Central India with a loss to the rebels of five thousand killed alone, and to the British force of under four hundred killed and wounded.
Leaving a small portion of his second brigade to garrison Jánsi, Rose marched on 25 April for Kálpi, 102 miles to the north-east. Tidings soon reached him that the rebels under Tántia Topi had occupied in force Kúnch, a town rather more than half way to Kálpi. Rose at once marched on Kúnch, detailing a small force under Major Gall to attack the strong fort of Lohári, six miles on his left flank, which was captured on 5 May after a desperate struggle. Kúnch was a difficult place to attack, on account of the enclosures around it, and owing to the western quarter and the Jánsi gate being strongly fortified. On the night of 6 May Rose made a flank march of fourteen miles to gain the less protected side of the place on the east, whence also he threatened the enemy's line of retreat to Kálpi. His left, consisting of the first brigade, rested on the village of Nágupúra; the centre, formed of the second brigade, occupied the village of Chomair, while Major Orr's Haidarábád force on the right occupied the village of Umri. The attack took place on 7 May, and the fight lasted till late in the evening, in a temperature of 110° Fahr. in the shade. Rose's force suffered as much from sunstroke as from the fire of the enemy. Rose himself had to dismount four times from excessive debility, and it was only by medical treatment that he was enabled to hold out until the day was won, while many officers and men were either killed or prostrated by the intense heat. When the place was captured, pursuit was thus rendered impossible.
Intelligence reaching Rose of a combination of Tántia Topi and the rání at Kálpi with the nawáb of Bandá at Nowgong, twenty miles to the south-west of Kálpi, to cut him off, he made forced marches towards Kálpi. The troops had now to contend not only with an enemy superior in numbers and in knowledge of the country, but with an Indian sun at its maximum of summer heat. The number of sick increased daily, and added to the difficulties of transport. There was, moreover, scarcity of water and forage. On 15 May Rose established himself at Goláoli on the Jamná, out of the direct line between Kúnch and Kálpi, in order that he might turn the fortifications thrown up by the rebels to impede his advance, and that he might also join hands with Brigadier (afterwards Sir) George Maxwell's small force, which had reached the left bank of the Jamná opposite Goláoli.
Kálpi was occupied by the nawáb of Bandá with a large force. Its position was strong, being protected on all sides by ravines, on its front by five lines of defence, and on its rear by the river Jamná, from which rises the precipitous rock on which the fort is built. From 16 to 20 May constant skirmishes took place. On the 19th a mortar battery opened fire from the right front of the British position. On the 20th part of Maxwell's force crossed the river and joined Rose. On the 21st Maxwell's artillery opened on the place. On the 22nd, at ten o'clock, the rebels marched out in masses along the Bandá road to attack the British left. This was a feint, as their main body was stealing up the ravines to attack what they hoped would be the weakened right of Rose's force. The British left became seriously engaged, but Rose did not move a man from his right to assist his left. Suddenly the enemy debouched from the ravines, and ascended the spurs, pouring a heavy fire into the British right, and, advancing with repeated volleys, pressed it back on the British mortar battery and field guns. Here a stand was made, and Rose brought up the camel corps, and, leading them himself, charged the advancing rebels.
