Here it was that Jeswant Rao Holkar gave a grand ball on the 14th of
October, 1804, while he was with his cavalry covering the siege of
Delhi by his regular brigade. In the midst of the festivity he had a
European soldier of the King's 76th Regiment, who had been taken
prisoner, strangled behind the curtain, and his head stuck upon a
spear and placed in the midst of the assembly, where the 'nach'
(nautch) girls were made to dance round it. Lord Lake reached the
place the next morning in pursuit of this monster; and the gallant
regiment, who here heard the story, had soon an opportunity of
revenging the foul murder of their comrade in the battle of Dig, one
of the most gallant passages of arms we have ever had in India.[4]
Near Kosi there is a factory in ruins belonging to the late firm of
Mercer & Company. Here the cotton of the district used to be
collected and screwed under the superintendence of European agents,
preparatory to its embarkation for Calcutta on the river Jumna. On
the failure of the firm, the establishment was broken up, and the
work, which was then done by one great European merchant, is now done
by a score or two of native merchants.
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