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About the 18th of December we took up a position before the fort of Deig, and in two days after broke ground against it. The two companies to which I belonged led the column, carrying tools for working. The night was as dark as pitch, and bitterly cold.
Lord Auckland appointed to the command of the troops which he was sending forward a quiet, steadfast, experienced officer of the artillery arm, who had fought under Lake at Deig and Bhurtpore, and during his forty years of honest service had soldiered steadily from the precipices of Nepaul to the rice-swamps of the Irrawaddy.
Thus ended our first attempt to take the strong fortress of Bhurtpore by storm. But, on the approach of Holkar, Runjeet Singh wanted to evade his engagements with the British, whereupon Lake attacked and captured Deig and laid siege to Bhurtpore. The total loss in Lake's army at Bhurtpore is given by the historian Mill as 388 killed and 1,894 wounded.
The Irish inscription consists of the following lines: Do mhiannaich se ardmath Cum tir a breith Do thug se clu a's fuair se moladh An deig a bais. The following is the English inscription: In Memory of THOMAS ADDIS EMMET, Who exemplified in his conduct, And adorned by his integrity. The policy and principles of the UNITED IRISHMEN
The same evening, or the following morning, the enemy reached the station of Mainporee, a distance of seventy-two miles. At this station we had one native corps only; but they were prepared to receive them. The battle of Furrackabad was on the 16th or 17th day of November, 1804; after which the enemy shifted their course towards the fort of Deig, the property of the Bhurtpore rajah.
"Glory be to God! but that's wondherful all out. Well, we'll!" "Ay, an' Beal Deig, or the Red Mouth, is still livin'." "Livin! why, is he a man of our own time?" "Our own time! The Lord help you! It's more than a thousand years since he made the prophecy. The case you see is this: he an' the ten thousand witnesses are lyin' in an enchanted sleep in one of the Montherlony mountains."
His officer told him it was a cowardly act to shoot a poor fellow without arms. "Arms! your honour, I beg your honour's pardon, he had two; ay, faith, and fists at the end of them; and he was just after going to be mighty saucy besides. Besides, your honour, did not a spalpeen shoot at and hit me at Deig, without so much as bidding me the time of the morning, or by your lave, or with your lave?
The enemy sought protection under the walls of the fort; and, although our ally, the governor of the fort of Deig, fired on our army, General Frazer, seeing the danger of a defeat, charged at the head of the 76th, supported by the European regiment and native troops, and succeeded in driving them from their guns, and from the protection of the fort; but, in the heat of the action, the gallant general received a ball in the foot, and was obliged to retire from the field.
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