the garden. At the same moment he saw the enemy's guns – two nine-pounder brass guns – in the road, with horses attached, but no one with them, the enemy having apparently taken refuge in Ludlow Castle when driven out of the Metcalfe gardens by Lumsden. The horses' heads were turned towards' the city. An alarm – a stray bullet, a discharge close to them— might start them off at any moment. Quick as lightning the idea flashed into Coke's brain that if he could but turn the horses' heads towards the camp, it would little signify how soon the horses might be alarmed: they themselves capture the guns for the British. On the instant he alighted from his horse, got down through the embrasure into the road, ran to the horses of the leading gun, and turned them up the road towards cantonments. Whilst doing this he was shot in the thigh by the enemy in Ludlow Castle; but the guns were captured. He had done his self-allotted task, and reaped his only reward in the admiration of all who witnessed his splendid audacity. He was in February 1858, given the command of a brigade to operate in Rohilkhand. On reaching Roorkee he had great difficulty in procuring transport. Malleson writes : — "The country, in fact, had been so thoroughly exhausted that but little carriage was procurable. In this dilemma Coke's practical knowledge and fertility of resource came into play. He had read how, in the olden days of Indian warfare, the Brinjaris – dealers who carry their grain on pack cattle – had made themselves eminently serviceable. Calling to mind, then, that at the actual season these men were accustomed to pasture their cattle in the Terai, he sent thither, found them, and made such arrangements with their head men as enabled him to conquer a difficulty which many another man would have found insurmountable." Lord Lawrence, writing to The Times in November 1878, on the Afghan war, named Major-General John Coke as one of the "models of frontier officers, good administrators, and able soldiers – men who devoted their health, and even their lives, to their duty." See also Punjab Irregular Force North-West Frontier Sources Coke, John Talbot (Major): Coke of Trusley in the County of Derby and Branches Therefrom, London, 1880. pp. 118–122 Kelly's Handbook 1892 List of Officers of the Bengal Army 1754–1834, vol.1,