Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/28

 Etawah, having accomplished the whole affair, including the fifty miles' ride, in twelve hours.'

"During the following six months Hume was constantly at work in the field against the rebels escaping from Oudh. One or two extracts may here be given from his final report when the pacification of the District had been accomplished : —

" 'On April 21 we made a most successful cavalry attack on a party of Roop Singh's at Ajeetmul, and though the enemy were in great force all round, drove them with the loss of seven men helterskelter into the ravines. The audacity of this attack, for the time, completely frightened the rebels. Next day, by a very pretty combined movement from two directions, we surprised the enemy, cut up fifteen, took prisoner and hung three. . . . Mr. C. Doyle was shot through the right shoulder.'

"In the May following there came a series of desperate operations on the banks of the Jumna against Feroze Shah, of the Delhi royal family. 'Of this,' wrote Hume, 'it is sufficient here to say that in an open boat in the middle of May (with a force of 410 horse and foot, and two 3-pounders) we in seven days collected and raised (often under the enemy's fire) 36 boats, and after many skirmishes and a pitched battle (in which we defeated a far superior force of the mutineers, taking the whole of their six guns, all their baggage, and killing eighty-one regular sepoys), safely conveyed them 63 miles down the river, past hostile villages and forts.'

"By the end of the year the District of Etawah was once more at peace ; and in closing the notes on this important stage of Hume's career, no better summary of the work he did can be given than by quoting some of his remarks at the end of his report : —

" 'No District in the North- West Provinces has, I believe, been more completely restored to order. None