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126 victims, and one Englishman only was excepted from the sentence of general massacre: this was a surgeon named Fullarton, whose professional knowledge was the cause of his preservation. The English prisoners in other places shared the fate of those at Patna; and it is said that the total number of Englishmen murdered amounted to two hundred.

On the 6th of November, Patna was stormed and taken by the British troops, and from this period the fortune of Meer Cossim was decided. His army was pursued by that of the English to the banks of the Caramnassa, which river he crossed to seek refuge in the territories of the Soubahdar of Oude, with whom he had previously concluded a treaty. The war, however, began to linger, principally owing to the mutinous disposition of Meer Jaffier's troops, which unhappily spread to the Europeans and Sepoys of the Company's army, amongst whom desertions were frequent; and the mutineers even went to the extent of threatening to carry off their officers and deliver them up to the enemy.

This was the threatening posture of affairs when Major Munro, a King's officer, was called from Bombay, with as many troops, both King's and Company's, as could be spared from that Presidency. On arriving at Calcutta, he lost no time in proceeding with the troops which had accompanied him to Patna, where the entire force of the British, which had been assembled in its neighbourhood, seemed on the point of breaking up. Such being the situation of the army, Major Munro, to use his own words, "determined to endeavour to conquer that mutinous disposition in them before he would attempt to conquer the enemy."

In the spirit of this determination, he proceeded with a detachment and four field-pieces to one of the cantonments at a short distance from Patna. On the day of his arrival, a battalion of Sepoys marched off with their arms and accoutrements to join the enemy. A party consisting of a hundred Europeans and a bat-