‘Next day I heard I had killed the “Bhudda” (old) Senaputti, or the commander-in-chief of the old Maharaj, father of the present lot of scoundrels, and also two generals; but that is not yet confirmed. ‘Well, as I said, we bolted back into the fort, and I had thirty minutes’ leisure to go all round my fort, and found I had only fifty rounds per man, enough for one hour’s hard fighting, and only twenty-five for Martinis; so I ordered all the men to lie down behind the walls, and one man in six kept half an hour’s watch on their movements. The men had orders not to fire a shot till the enemy were half-way across the open adjoining compounds; but the enemy declined to cross the open, and the men did not fire a shot all day. I picked off a few who showed their heads from the east corner, where I spent the rest of the day, the men smoking and chatting, and at last took no notice of the bullets cutting the trees a foot or six inches over their heads. ‘Thus the day passed, the enemy retiring at dark, and we counted our loss—two men and one follower wounded, one by shell; one pony killed, two wounded; two elephants wounded, one severely; and my breakfast spoilt by a shell, which did not frighten my boy, who brought me the head of the shrapnel which did the mischief—I will send it home to be made into an inkpot, with inscription—and half my house knocked down. ‘Next day, 7th, quiet, improved post and pounded dhan to make rice. ‘Saturday, 8th, ditto. Large bodies of Manipuris seen moving to my right rear long way off. ‘At five, 7th, two Burmans came with letters from Maharajah to Viceroy, and a letter from “civil” to poor killed chief commissioner. I opened and found that large army comes up from Burmah “at once.” A small party three or four days before would have been more use. Maharajah’s letter a tissue of miserable lies and stupid excuses. ‘At noon, 8th, white flag appeared, and a man stuck a letter on road and went back. Went and found it contained a letter from Presgrave, with orders from Burmah for me to retire on first opportunity, and he was not to reinforce me, but to help me to retire. I was sick, but the orders were most peremptorily worded. So at 7.30 p.m., on a pitch-dark, rainy night, we started back—a splendid night for a retreat, but such a ghastly, awful job! ‘We had two wounded elephants with us, and made just a mile an hour, only seeing our hands before our faces by the lightning-flashes. I had to hold on to a Sepoy’s coat, as I could see absolutely nothing; but they see better in the dark than we do. We were drenched to the skin, and were halting, taking ten paces forward when the lightning flashed, and then halting the column half an hour at times; but the feeble Manipuri, of course, would not be out such a night, and we passed through three or four villages full of troops without a man showing.