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Rh lock and tulwar in hand, or lying down and cutting at them. The jungle, too, was set on fire by the fugitives; but nothing could check the ardour of the pursuit, for the British saw within their reach Tántia Topi's heavy artillery.

The four guns of the Eagle Troop and the Field Battery under Captain Lightfoot galloped with Sir Hugh Rose through the blazing jungle until they reached the banks of the Betwá, after capturing a horse battery. The gunners then opened fire on the enemy, who were recrossing the Betwá in wild confusion; supported by their second line, which had not yet come into action, and which now opposed the pursuing troops with artillery and musketry fire. But resistance was useless, and the pursuit was continued till dark for some 16 miles. Tántia Topi's loss in this extraordinary action was 1500 men, besides stores, siege guns, camp equipage, and materials of war; welcome booty to the victors. Tántia Topi himself fled to Kálpi, and the whole of the Peshwá's army — which by threatening Bundelkhand and taking Charkhári had so alarmed the Governor-General and his advisers as to induce them to think that its defeat should be paramount to the siege of Jhánsí — was dispersed and broken. Whitlock was able to march on Bánda. Charkhári was already an affair of the past. And all this was effected by a handful of disciplined men led by a determined and skilful General.

Nor while thus subduing a district with one hand,