BANNOCK BURN

BATTLE OF.—This battle is called the “Marathon of Scotland.” It was fought June 25th, 1314, between King Robert Bruce of Scotland and Edward II, of England. The army of Bruce consisted of 30,000 Scots, that of Edward consisted of 100,000 English, of whom 52,000 were archers. The English cro ed a rivulet to the attack, and Bruce having dug deep pits, which he afterwards covered, the English cavalry fell into them and were thrown into confusion. The rout was complete—the king narrowly escaped being taken, and 50,000 English were killed or taken prisoners. BANTRY BAY.—A French fleet, with succors to the adherents of James II, was in this bay attacked by Admiral Herbert, May, 1689. Here a French squadron anchored for a few days, in December, 1796. The mutiny of Bantry Bay is famous in naval history—17 of the mutineers were condemned to death, and 11 executed afterwards at Portsmouth, January, 1802. BAREILLY.—India.—This place is famous in the great Indian Mutiny.—The following is a description of the attack on the British troops, by a body of Ghazees, or Fanatics, May 5th, 1859, from Dr. Ru ell’s correspondence. “As soon as the Sikhs got into the houses, they were exposed to a heavy fire from a large body of matchlock men concealed around them. They either retired of their own accord, or were ordered to do so; at all events, they fell back with rapidity and disorder upon the advancing Highlanders. And now occurred a most extraordinary scene. Among the matchlock men, who, to the number of seven or eight hundred, were lying behind the walls of the houses, was a body of Ghazees, or Mu ulman fanatics, who, like the Roman Decii, devote their lives with solemn oaths to their country or their faith. Uttering loud cries, ‘Bismillah, Allah, deen, deen!’ one hundred and thirty of these fanatics, sword in hand, with small circular bucklers on the left arm, and green cummer bungs, rushed out after the Sikhs, and dashed at the left of the right wing of the Highlanders. With bodies bent and heads low, waving their tulwars with a circular motion in the air, they came on with astonishing rapidity. At first they were mistaken for Sikhs, whose pa age had already somewhat disordered our ranks. Fortunately Sir Colin Campbell was close up with the 42nd; his keen, quick eye detected the case at once. “Steady, men, steady; close up the ranks. Bayonet them as they come on.” It was just in time; for these madmen, furious with bang, were already among us, and a body of them sweeping around the left of the right wing, got into the rear of the regiment. The struggle was short, but sanguinary. Three of them dashed so suddenly at Colonel Cameron, that they pulled him off his horse ere he could defend himself. His sword fell out of its sheath, and he would have been hacked to pieces in another moment, but for the gallant promptitude of Colour Sergeant Gardiner, who, stepping out of the ranks, drove his bayonet through two of them in the twinkling of an eye. The third was shot by one of the 42nd. Brigadier Walpole had a similar escape; he was seized by two or three of the Ghazees, who sought to pull him off his horse, while others cut at him with their tulwars. He received two cuts on the hand, but he was delivered from the enemy by the quick bayonets of the 42nd. In a few minutes the dead bodies of one hundred and thirty-three of these Ghazees, and some eighteen or twenty wounded men of ours, were all the tokens left of the struggle.”