Lastly, it must be remarked that this was the second if not the third campaign of its kind wherein the Seventeenth had been engaged. We saw it within twenty years of its foundation scouring the Carolinas and Virginia under Tarleton and Cornwallis, covering on one occasion one hundred and five miles in fifty-four hours, and traversing by constant forced marches a total distance of fifteen hundred miles. [Sidenote: 1859.] We found it next in Malwa in 1818 chasing the Pindaris; once making a forced march of thirty miles, and cutting Cheettoo’s bandits to pieces at the end. Finally, forty years later, we follow it to this same Malwa through the mazy pursuit of Tantia Topee. In all three cases these incessant forced marches were accompanied by every hardship that could be inflicted by climate, privation, and fatigue; and whether we follow the Seventeenth in long-skirted scarlet and black helmet under the blazing sun of South Carolina and the drenching rain of the Alleghany slopes; or first in French gray jacket and white shako, and next in blue tunic and pugareed forage cap, through the burning days and bitter nights of the Malwa--in all three cases the story is the same. General Michel in 1858, no less than Lord Cornwallis in 1782, bears eloquent witness to the cheerful spirit and unconquerable patience with which these hardships were endured. Nor does the parallel hold less good of the action at the close of the march. It was when worn out with marching that a troop of the Seventeenth stood alone, after all others had given way, and cut its way through twenty times its number at Cowpens; it was when worn out with marching that a squadron of the Seventeenth charged and dispersed forty times its number at Barode. CHAPTER XIV PEACE SERVICE IN INDIA AND ENGLAND, 1859–1879 [Sidenote: 1859.]