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128 complied with. Sixteen more of the offenders were blown away; and the remaining four carried to another cantonment where considerable desertion had taken place, there to suffer in like manner. This, to be sure, was a remedy which it is impossible to regard without a feeling of horror, but it was a most effectual cure for mutiny and desertion.

The army being once more in a state in which it might be trusted to meet an enemy, Major Munro prepared to take the field as early as possible after the rains; and the 15th of September, 1764, was fixed for the rendezvous of the troops from the different cantonments. Meanwhile, the enemy, consisting of Meer Cossim's troops, and those of his ally, the Vizier of Oude, had advanced several parties of horse, and thrown up some breastworks on the banks of the Soane, to impede the passage of the English. To remove this obstacle, Major Champion was despatched with a detachment and four field-pieces to cross the river some miles below the place where the main body were to pass, and advance on the opposite bank for the purpose of dislodging the enemy, and covering the landing of the British troops.

It was important that Major Champion should arrive on one side of the river at the same time that the main body reached the other. The movements of both parts of the British force were executed with so much precision for this purpose that Major Champion's detachment began to fire on the enemy at the moment when the van of Major Munro's army appeared on the opposite bank. The enemy was soon dislodged; the English force was thus enabled to cross the river without molestation, and in four hours the operation was completed.

Major Munro then continued his march towards Buxar, where the enemy lay, and where he found them on the 22nd of October, intrenched, with the Ganges on their left, and the village of Buxar in their rear. The British commander ascertained on the night of his arrival that the enemy were moving their artillery, and