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34 officers drove Ellis headlong into open war. On the night of June 24 his troops carried the city of Patná with a rush. The Nawáb replied to this challenge by ordering the arrest of every Englishman in Bengal. Amyatt, a leading partisan of Ellis in the Calcutta Council, was slain in attempting to resist Mír Kásim's officers. Patná was recovered as easily as it had been lost; and ere long Ellis himself with many of his countrymen fell into the hands of a conqueror whose passions were already beyond control.

The campaign that followed was as glorious for our arms as the past three years had been disgraceful to our civilisation. In spite of the July rains the bold Major Adams began his victorious march through Bengal. In five months he led his little force of Europeans and Sepoys from Calcutta to the Karamása; routing in two pitched battles many times his number of disciplined troops, winning four strong places by siege or assault, and capturing over four hundred pieces of cannon. Never before the great Mutiny was a hard campaign more splendidly fought against heavier odds. In requital for the rout of Giriah on August 2, Mír Kásim's fury could be slaked only by the blood of those who had fallen into his power. Several of his nobles and officers who had been friendly to the English were put to death. Two great Hindu bankers of the Seth clan were flung into the Ganges. The capture of Monghyr in September sealed the doom of his English prisoners whom he had safely lodged at Patná. Walter Rein-