Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/470

446 drowning the tumult of the advancing column; and see! – see by the flash of our guns, the column reels back, the Invulnerables fall, mortally wounded, and the rest turn their backs on the holy place, and run with frantic speed for the covering of the jungle. Our grape-shot and our musketry broke the spell – those Invulnerables ventured no more near any of our posts.

To counterbalance these successes of the British arms, a detachment under Captain Noton was cut off at Ramoo in Arracan, when he and several of his officers were slaughtered by the Burmese troops, under the command of Mengee Maha Bundoola. The prowess displayed on this occasion by Bundoola and his army made so deep an impression on the Court of Ava that they were withdrawn from Arracan, and sent to fight the English on the Irawaddi. Fortunately, our troops, though greatly reduced in numbers, were now fast recovering their health and strength; while two fresh British regiments, some battalions of native infantry, a regiment of cavalry, a troop of horse artillery, and a rocket-troop arrived from Calcutta and Madras, together with admirable draught-cattle of the true Mysore breed. Five hundred native boatmen also came round from Chittagong, and were busily employed in preparing boats for river service.

By the end of October the rains had entirely ceased at Rangoon, and Sir Archibald Campbell was completing his preparations for the ascent of the Irawaddi, and for an attack upon Prome, when he learned that the Maha Bundoola had reached Donobew with 60,000 fighting-men, a considerable train of artillery, and a body of Cassay horse, the best cavalry of this part of Asia. On the 30th of November Bundoola's great army assembled in and behind the dense forest which almost touches at one point the conical hill and the great pagoda; and his line, extending from the river above Kemmendine in a semi-circular direction towards Puzendown, might be distinguished by a curved line of smoke rising above the trees.