The Jhansee raj having lapsed through the failure of direct heirs, the widow of a former Raja endeavoured to place, as the adopted son of the previous ruler, a boy on the throne. A disturbance arose, which ended in the murder of the minister supported by the British authority. This act of the Bhaiee was called in question by the Governor-General’s agent; his authority was treated with disrespect, and he found it necessary to call in the aid of a regiment and a couple of guns. At these, the insurgents, who had seized the fort, laughed, and on his attempting a parley with them, attacked and wounded his elephant and chuprassees, and forced him precipitately to retreat. Reinforcements and a battering train were sent for from Sagur; but the country had been so denuded of troops to form the army of the Indus, that, had it not been for the Mhow troops just being relieved from Bombay, a very insufficient force could have been collected. A train of four 18–pounders and four 8–inch mortars, with as much ammunition as carriage could be obtained for, was got ready, and, in the absence of available artillery officers, the commissary of ordnance at Sagur, Lieutenant Buckle, who had offered his services, started in charge of it early in December, and after a march of twelve days, rendered difficult and fatiguing by the badness of the roads, the steep banks and rocky beds of the rivers and nullahs which abounded, and the broken rocky ghats leading from table-land into Bundlecund, reached Jhansee on the 18th December. The troops collected by degrees, and the artillery, when reinforced from Cawnpoor, amounted to that detailed in the margin.[86] The engineer park was placed in the charge of the commissary of ordnance, the field engineer, Major Smith, having joined dak, and the preparation of _matériel_ instantly commenced. Continual communications passed between the Bhaiee and the agent, which were warlike to the last, and, as she had collected bands of Nagas, resistance was expected; but on the preparations being completed, the force moving down to invest the fort, carrying their train and the stock of gabions and fascines which had been prepared, she fled during the night, and the fort was taken possession of without firing a shot. The labour of conveying the heavy ordnance over a broken country was the chief difficulty, but this was not much felt, owing to the season of the year.