to which he refers, and he is satisfied that service rendered in the spirit in which they are ready to give it will be most valuable to the State.
“With the view of availing himself of such service in the most effectual manner, his Lordship in Council directs that a Volunteer Corps of cavalry be formed, to be called the Bengal Yeomanry Cavalry, and to be equipped and prepared for duty in the disturbed districts," etc., etc.
At this critical time of national gloom, when there was mourning throughout the length and breadth of England, and Upper India was saturated with the innocent blood of our hapless fellow-countrymen, Volunteers — amid great demonstrations of enthusiasm — cheerfully responded to the appeal contained in the above-quoted notification, and within a week of its publication a cavalry regiment — composed not of “European adventurers and Eurasians,” as was at first surmised, but of young military officers recently arrived from England, or those left idle by the mutiny of their regiments, of clerks in the Government and mercantile offices, of midshipmen belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental and other companies' ships, of indigo planters, of some unemployed Europeans and Eurasians, of young men related to the best families in the country; and most of these were excellent riders, good shots, and keen sportsmen — was actually formed, mounted, equipped, and ready for service in the field.
Accordingly, on an appointed day, at an early hour the Corps rode forth, and drew up on the Calcutta esplanade for inspection by the Governor-General.
