stores; while the Brigade itself, attacked simultaneously both in front and from the rear by an exasperated foe, would probably have had to retreat with calamitous loss.
To guard against the possibility of such a disaster happening, however, it was decided to encompass the camp with trenches, so as to render it somewhat secure; while for the protection of the hospital and magazine, the erection of earthworks, mounted with the captured guns, and made defensible against everything but regular siege operations, was deemed necessary to meet any emergency that might arise. Accordingly the work of entrenching and fortifying commenced, while all huts or houses that stood in the line of fire were levelled — the baggage elephants being employed in the latter task, instead of sappers, of whom there were none, and very serviceable they proved. Much spirit and steady labour having been thrown into the work, the position soon became defensible, and in consequence considerable saving in watchfulness temporarily followed.
The result of the victory paralysed the rebels; and was productive of so salutary an effect upon the inhabitants of the district that shoals of the peasantry, who in numbers form the most important part of the population, returned to their homes, from which they had fled at the commencement of hostilities. And as therefore a short interval of tranquillity has now to be recorded, I will slightly digress in the course of the narrative, in order to speak of these good and gentle
