Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/307

Rh ing a variety of merchandise, as in a great fair. Jewellers, smiths, and mechanics were all attending as minutely to their occupations, and all as busily employed, as if they were in Poonah, and at peace."

In this enormous camp upwards of 50,000 men were collected, the river Kaitna running in their front, the Suah in their rear. These rivers united their waters at some distance beyond the left of the camp, forming a flat peninsula of considerable extent. The native infantry and all the guns were in position on the left, retired upon the Suah, and appuied on the village of Assaye; the cavalry were entirely on the right. The position was naturally strong; for the banks of the Kaitna are steep and broken, and the front very difficult to attack.

As the British cavalry, consisting of the 19th Light Dragoons, and three native regiments, under the command of Colonel Maxwell, formed line on the heights, it presented a strange but glorious contrast to the countless multitude of Mahratta horsemen who were seen in endless array below. The English brigade, scarcely numbering three thousand sabres, took its position with all the boldness of a body having an equal force to oppose. In number Scindia's cavalry were fully ten to one; it being ascertained that, with his allies, the horsemen actually on the field exceeded thirty thousand. Having made a careful réconnoissance, General Wellesley determined, notwithstanding the vast disparity in the number of his troops, to lead them directly on to the attack.

While examining the position, immense masses of Scindia's cavalry moved forward, and threw out skirmishers, which were directly driven in. General Wellesley having discovered a neglected ford, decided on crossing the Kaitna, and, by attacking the infantry and guns, embarrass the immense cavalry force of Scindia, by obliging it to manœuvre to disadvantage, and to act on the confined space the ill-selected ground afforded.

The British infantry had now come up, and in column