The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

46
The Highland Monthly.
nth of April. I remember the scene well enough—before
the sad affair at Rooyah, when the 42nd, 79th, and 93rd
were brigaded together ; and two old sergeants of the 93rd,
now in Inverness, concur in this, but one of them attributes
it to a trooper of the 9th Lancers having thrust his lance
through a bee's nest, and told me that an officer of his
regiment, naming him, was so badly stung that he was
carried in a dhoolie all the way to Bareilly, i.e., till 6th May.
I distinctly remember sticks and stones being thrown up
into the mango trees to knock down the fruit.
Col. Percival's recollection of the occurrence is " early
in the campaign and when halted in a tope ;" but he also
mentions another instance when a picquet of two companies
79th, two guns, and a troop of cavalry were assailed by bees.
Another instance is given in Sir Hope Grant's " Incidents
of the Sepoy War," where an officer of the 9th Lancers
thrust a lance into a nest, and provoked such a furious
attack that the advance guard, consisting of men of the
93rd, then on the march to the Alumbagh, were fairly routed
and driven back on the main body of the regiment. Colonel
Adrian Hope, not knowing the cause, formed his men in
haste ready to resist an attack of cavalry. On this occasion
an artillery officer was so badly stung that his life was in
danger for some days.
It was on the nth of May also, during the advance to
relieve Shahjehanpore, I believe, that the following sad
accident took place. The 79th, after passing through a
large tope, were halted near the outside of it, at the top of
a declivity, to allow the 60th to pass, both regiments being
formed in fours. The 60th had their rifles at the trail, and
a private, having his at full cock, unfortunately shot a
sergeant of that corps in front of him through the thick part
of the thigh, the wound proving fatal in a very short time.
This was witnessed by Ensign Kerr and myself. Probably
the 60th had been ordered to skirmish in front on emerging
from the tope, and the 79th had their bayonets fixed; for, on
descending the hill a iow minutes afterwards, owing to one