1 404 EFFECT OF OUR SHELLS,’
2 -Meanwhile,I had explained Colonel Wade’s
3 commands to the ghorcheras’ officers, who re-
4 plied ‘ that it was the custom of their troops,
5 when once they made an advance, never to
6 retreat; that they were quite willing to seize
7 upon the.cantonments if it was the Colonel’s
8 wish, but they would also retain possession
9 of it or fall to a man.’ This intimation I
10 conveyed in a pencilled note to Colonel
11 Wade for. his instruction, but he, either
12 unwilling to risk so much when there was
13 no actual necessity for it, or foreseeing no
14 proportionate equivalent likely to result from
15 the act, declined allowing, them to proceed.
16 After having expended several shells 1 ceased
17 to fire, but to guard against contingencies,
18 kept several in a state of readiness, to be used
19 as occasions offered; and half an hour had
20 scarcely elapsed, when some ten or twelve in-
21 dividuals were detected endeavouring to escape
22 from their encampment by the left bank. A
23 couple of rounds sent them back rather more
24 precjnitately than they had advanced, and sub-
25 sequently others who attempted the same thing