it was reported: that the territory adjacent to the river Ghagrā swarmed with insurgents, and that the very position to which we were proceeding was not free from them. Nevertheless, discrediting these rumours, onward we pressed ; and as within thirty miles or so in front of our right flank a Nipalese “ally” army, many thousands strong, was moving on towards Luknow, we did not anticipate experiencing annoyance, or interruption, on the line of our march through this hostile and dangerous section of the country.
I have already stated that in these flying marches the trees stood duty for tents; and as we had now arrived at a large tope wherein some masonry wells marked a halting stage, we bivouacked, and made preparations for passing the night there.
Hard by this bivouac, suspended in the tope, we saw for the first time the fruits of retributive punishment in the corpses of rebels dangling from many branches of the trees, and recording the vengeance of some advanced British force, which had left in its trail these ghastly memorials of stem retribution. Some of the bodies — encased in gorgeous apparel — hung so close to the ground that the limbs to the knees had been eaten away by pariah dogs and jackals; while the upper portions, literally “alive” through decomposition, tainted the very atmosphere of the surrounding neighbourhood. A more revolting spectacle it would be difficult to imagine; and we were only too glad when the hour arrived for us to leave these fetid
