Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/310

286 moment of victory, Maxwell, "fighting foremost," died in front of the battle.

The last effort of the day was made by a part of the artillery who were in position near the village of Assaye; and in person Wellesley led on the 78th Highlanders and the 7th Native Cavalry. In the attack the General's horse was killed under him; but the enemy declined the charge, broke, fled, and left a field cumbered with their dead, and crowded with cannon, bullocks, caissons, and all the matériel of an Eastern army, to the conquerors.

The evening had fallen before the last struggle at Assaye was over, but the British victory was complete. Twelve hundred of Scindia's dead were upon the field, while of his wounded scarcely an estimate could be hazarded – for all the villages and adjacent country were crowded with his disabled soldiery. The British loss was, of necessity, severe; and it might be estimated that one-third of the entire army was rendered hors de combat.

To call Assaye a brilliant victory, says Maxwell, whose narrative we have adopted, is only using a term simply descriptive of what it was. It was a magnificent display of skill, moral courage, and perfect discipline, against native bravery, and an immense numerical superiority. But it was not a mass of men, rudely collected, ignorant of military tactics, and unused to combinations, that Wellesley overthrew. Scindia's army was respectable in every arm, his cavalry excellent of their kind, and his artillery well served. His infantry had been for a long time under the training of French officers; and the ease and precision with which he changed his front, when the British crossed the Kaitna to assail his flank, showed that the lessons of the French disciplinarians had not been given in vain.

After this victory, Scindia proceeded to make separate overtures; but, as they were presented at first through private and unaccredited channels, which he might afterwards disown, no proceeding could be founded upon them. The Commander-in-Chief directed Colonel Stevenson to