Strengthened by Colonel Stevenson’s division, now arrived, including the old Ninety-fourth, or Scots Brigade, Major-General Wellesley continued to press the retiring foe, until, overtaken at Argaum, he made a brief stand. In the battle which ensued, whilst the Ninety-fourth occupied the left of the line, the Seventy-fourth and Seventy-eighth together upon the other flank, encountered the only considerable attack of the enemy; which, undertaken by a body of 800 furious fanatics, was sustained with exceeding valour, until the entire column had fallen before the veterans of Assaye. Notwithstanding the vigour of the assault, a very trifling loss was inflicted upon the British, and the enemy otherwise relinquished the field almost without a blow. A quaint story is told by General Stewart of the piper of the Seventy-eighth, who, when the musicians were ordered at Assaye to attend to the wounded, esteeming himself included, had in consequence gone to the rear. This desertion his comrades attributed to fear, and the unfortunate piper, branded as a coward, felt the rebuke thus stingingly uttered: “Flutes and hautboys they thought could be well spared, but for the piper, who should always be in the heat of the battle, to go to the rear with the _whistlers_, was a thing altogether unheard of.” Bitterly sensible of the unmerited insult, he gladly availed himself of a favourable opportunity at the battle of Argaum to blot out the stigma and redeem his fame. He played with such animation amidst the hottest of the fire, that, not only restored to his comrades’ confidence, he entailed the commands of the colonel to be silent, lest the men so inspired should be urged too soon to the charge. The war was soon after brought to a glorious termination by the fall of Gawilghur. Thereafter removed to Madras, the regiment remained in quietude till 1811, when, included in the army of Lieutenant-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty, it sailed with the expedition destined to operate against the valuable Dutch colony of Java. It required much severe fighting, especially at and around Cornelis—a very strong position, where the enemy, with concentrated might, maintained a resolute defence, only yielding when, with 1000 men killed, the post had become no longer tenable—ere the island was reduced. In this expedition the Seventy-eighth lost about 100 officers and men. Although the sword and the pestilence had each claimed its victims, still they failed to vanquish our Highlanders.