CHAPTER XVII.
We now return again to the rebels.
Their position being menaced by “flying”columns scouring Oudh right and left, they deemed it advisable to “move on,” rather than remain stationary, and thus run the risk of being intercepted by some of these columns. So leisurely, however, were their movements conducted that it would have been no difficult matter to have brought them within ‘arm’ length of the Brigade immediately after they had “broken cover,” had not the Eapte, flowing between them and us, proved an effectual barrier. This river, in fact, so completely kept them out of harm's way, and arrested the object of the pursuit, that for days they must have laughed at our happy-go-lucky, and devil-may-care rambles over the burning plains, and in the blazing hot winds.
There can be little doubt that never in any war, since the world began, was the sun a greater enemy than in the Mutiny campaign. And some idea may be gained of the insufferable heat under his vertical beams, when I state the fact that we could not retain our feet in the burning stirrups, and the ground was heated to such a degree, as not to be borne by the naked foot. The
