This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
volunteering in india
51

formed an appropriate accompaniment to the short prayer read over his grave, by the Lieutenant of the troop to which he belonged.

Being the first volunteer killed in action, Randolph’s name is recorded here; but no other casualty in the Corps will be mentioned in this narrative, for the melancholy list, alas! is too long, to warrant its insertion within the narrow space allotted to these pages. I may, however, mention that the numerous Government Gazettes of 1858, and 1859, contain the category of the killed and wounded.

March 1st — Although the safety of our position is reduced to a calculation of hours, and our heads are in tigers’ mouths, it was cheering to hear that the advance guard of the Field Force would be with us on the morrow. From the rebel camp the spy also brought intelligence of armed men flocking out of the Belwa fort, and preparing for a foraging raid over the district. And to this information he also supplemented other intimations concerning the movements of the rebels, which, as on a former occasion, proved so true that, instead of being a “desperate scoundrel” — as his fellow camp followers for some occult reason had dubbed him — he became the native hero in the camp; and when the fighting commenced in downright earnest, he was present in all the engagements, sticking to the Corps like a leech, until eventually the brave fellow, with broken sword in hand, was killed while endeavouring to save the life of a wounded trooper. Such was the fate of Mohun (a low-caste