We had frequent skirmishes with detached parties, killing numbers with our six-pounders; but we could not come up with them. We therefore made our way towards Muttra, a great haunt of the Pindarees, where we lay for some time, trying to surprise them; but they were ever on the watch, as the rattling of our swords might be heard a mile off. Tired of this service, we took possession of the town of Muttra, driving them out. Here we had glorious plunder--shawls, silks, satins, khemkaubs, money, &c.; and some of the men made a good thing of it. I was not idle; but an untoward circumstance for a time delayed my exertions. I was quartered in a large square or rajah's palace, and had to ascend several flights of steps to get at anything worth notice. All the way up this staircase were little iron plated doors, locked with several locks. As Paul Pry says, I thought this "rather mysterious"; I therefore commenced locksmith, and knocked off the locks, when I found the rooms full of bales of silk and shawls. I had just removed one of the largest bales from the top, and was in the very act of walking off with it, when, on turning round, a most brilliant eye met mine, set in one of the most hideous heads I had ever beheld. What monster this could be I could not at first imagine; nor did I stop very long to consider, but marched off rather precipitately with my prize; being at the moment more frightened than I was willing to confess, even to myself. On reflection, I was ashamed of my fears; so, having "screwed my courage to the sticking-post," in I marched again, with a drawn sword in my hand, and, having convinced myself, by a second peep, that my friend with the glaring eyes was no other personage than one of the gods Mahadooh, I saluted him with a cut across his face for taking up his quarters in that solitary place, and took the liberty of making free with all the silks and shawls under his protection. A short time after, we returned to quarters at Cawnpore, to spend the produce of our short campaign, Holkar having retired to a distant part of India, to his winter quarters.