Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/76

68 Government at this critical moment caused deep anxiety. Amír Khán, only twelve marches from Delhi, was supposed to have in his camp 30,000 fighting men of good quality, and 125 guns; he maintained his troops with difficulty when constrained to be inactive, and he was waiting in the 'hope of untoward events occurring to us in the Nepalese war, — an expectation founded on the extravagant opinion entertained of the Gúrkha power, and on the distorted accounts circulated respecting the reverses we had already suffered in the contest.' Lord Hastings had 4500 cavalry and infantry to resist this threatened invasion, and he meant to put himself at their head should occasion require it. A force of 1000 irregular horse was held in hand to oppose the Pindárís. The troops, moreover, at Cawnpur were left there for the purpose of keeping Sindhia in check, who was at Gwalior, only three marches from the Doáb, five from Delhi, and five from Agra.

Failure and danger did not discourage the Governor-General; he sought for fresh means to reduce the enemy and, as will be seen, speedily found them; he set himself vigorously to grapple with the difficulties of the moment, and was all the more determined to bring the war to a successful termination. He attributed the checks which the British arms had experi-