Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/252

 244 KHE grounds into the interior of the fort, the troops broke in from this at night time, and put the sleeping garrison to the sword, killing Chhípi Khan. The usual supplies were that night being forwarded, but the porters who carried them found the fort in the enemy's possession. They fled back with the news, and this heroine of the forest hearing of her lover's death thrust a dagger into her heart. Chhípi Khan had eleven Hindu brothers; their descendants have degenerated to a set of bold and turbulent robbers, one of whom, Bhagwant Singh, distinguished himself much in later Oudh history, and his career is the last sketch from the Bíchhil annals which has survived. During the eighteenth century the Bachhils had lost all their former prestige. The Jángre Chauhans had taken possession of Bhúr to the north, the Rájas of Muhamdi succeeding to the Sayyads of Barwar, had driven them from the cis-Gumti parganas; while Sítal Parshád, the terrible chakladar of Asif-ud-daula, was prepared to crush the chief of any old Chhattri clan who attempted to assert his claims to the leadership of the people.* After the death of Saádat Ali Khan, Bhagwant Singh long crouched in a little fort on the western edge of the same great jungle on whose east- ern border his ancestor Chhípi Khan had built Kámp. This was Atwa, about a mile from the Kathna, another of his ancestor's canal, and in Páruhár, where a third ancestor, as he believed, entertained the Pándu heroes 3,600 years previously. When the great Muhamdi and Mitauli principalities had been broken up, and the reins of administration were relaxed, during the reigns of Nasír-ud-din Haidar and Muhammad Ali Shah, there was nothing to hinder Bhagwant Singh against asserting his claims as a chief. He did it in the time-honoured Indian way by harrying the country and plundering all who would not recognize his ancient lordship of the soil and pay tribute. One belt of land between the Kathna and the Gumti contained many good villages, all bordered by the strip of forest which extends down the banks of the former river: under its shelter the freebooter used to travel with his followers, and emerging from the thickets when he came opposite the residence of some wealthy banker would rob and torture him, pro- bably carrying off the village cattle and the headman himself for ransom. At last he ventured down along the Kathna till its junction with the Gumti, and then crossing the latter river into the jungles of Gopamau and the lauv - less Bangar would carry his raids as far as Sandíla, retreating to the friendly forest in case of pursuit by a powerful force. In 1841 Colonel Low issued special orders for the arrest of this dacoit as he was called, or descendant of a line of kings as he called himself. The chief, during the rainy season, thinking that the Goverment forces would not move out of cantonments, had taken up his quarters at Ahrori, then and now noted for the large numbers of Pásis, skilled in robbery of all kinds, who reside in the sur- rounding jungles. Captain Hollings marched from Nímkhár on the 3rd Buckle young rebels.
 * Şítal Parshad used to cut off the breasts of captive Chhattri wonen lest they should