While Sir Hugh Rose was fighting, horses began to arrive at Kirkee--Arab, Syrian, Australian, and Cape horses for the most part; and as each squadron of the Seventeenth was mounted, it was hurried up to the front to join in the chase of Tantia. The first squadron was despatched from Kirkee on the 27th May, under the command of Captain Sir William Gordon, to join Major-General Michel’s force at Mhow. This squadron, in spite of many obstacles, lost no time upon the road. The first difficulty was the desertion, after two or three days’ march, of the _baboo_ who was in charge of the Commissariat arrangements. [Sidenote: 1858.] His place was taken by the only officer who could speak Hindustani, Lieutenant Evelyn Wood; and the squadron marched on without a day’s halt for the whole of the five hundred miles to its destination, learning much on the way, and arriving in perfect condition. At whatever hour of the day or night the march might close, Sir William Gordon, with or without the help of a candle, inspected every horse’s back, and if the hair appeared to be in the least degree ruffled, shifted the stuffing of the saddle from the tender place with a homely but effective instrument, a two-pronged steel fork. If the back were actually sore the trooper could look forward to the pleasure of tramping with the rear-guard on his own feet until it was healed; for this was the “golden rule” from which the Captain never departed. And such a tramp was not altogether enjoyable at that season. On the day before the squadron ascended the table-land whereon Mhow stands, the heat was so intense that the backs came off the brushes, and the combs contorted themselves into serpentine shapes. But there was not a sore back in the squadron when, at the end of June, it reached its destination, nor through the whole of the arduous service that subsequently fell upon it. By that time Tantia had already travelled over a large extent of country. Closely followed by two flying columns under General Roberts and Colonel Holmes, he struck southward from Tonk, and was overtaken and defeated by Roberts at Sanganir on the 7th August. A week later (14th August) he was again attacked by Roberts at Kankrowlee, again defeated, and pursued for seventeen miles. Then he struck east towards the Chumbul, where he evaded a third column under Brigadier Parke and reached Jhalra-patan. Here he was joined by the Rajah’s troops, whereby his force was augmented to 10,000 men, and gained possession of forty cannon as well as of considerable treasure.