It U P ( 771 ) RUS
To spread false Rumours, to circu-late things without the foundation ofreality. Reports, &c. are sometimescirculated by means of spies, deserters,&c. for the purpose of covering someparticular design, or intended operation,ltumobrs of this kind should be cau-tiously listened to by the commandingofficer of the army through which theyare spread. It sometimes happens, thatindividuals, through wantonness,or fromsome other motive, create alarms amongtheir own people by anticipating somelooked for, or dreaded event. Thisoffence is not only punishable by thecivil law', but, being contrary to goodorder and discipline, is rigidly so in everyarmy.
To RUN the gantlope , to undergoa punishment which has been allottedfor considerable offences in some foreigncountries. When a soldier has beensentenced to run the gantlope, the regi-ment is drawn out in two ranks facinginwards; each soldier having a switchin each hand, lashes the criminal as heruns along, naked from the waist up-wards. While he runs, the drums beatat each end of the ranks. Sometimeshe runs 3, 5, or 7 times, according tothe nature of the offence. The majoris on horseback, and takes care thateach soldier does his duty. This punish-ment is not known in the British ser-vice.
RUN. To run a horse is to puthim to his utmost speed, and to keephim on a quick resolute gallop, as longas he is able to bold it. Gallopingand running are not synouimous terms,though vulgarily thought so; for run-ning implies a degree of velocity, whichthe mere action of galloping does notreach.
RUNNING^. See Fire.
A Running sentinel. See Senti-nel.
RUPEE, a silver coin which varies inits value according to the part of India in which it is current. Rupees struckby the English are generally worth twoshillings and three-pence.
Sicca-lluPEE, a coin in India some-what higher than thesonaut rupee.
j$orcatt/-RuP£E, lnd. a coin in India .When the pay of an officer belongingto the Company's service is issued inEngland, the sonaut rupee is valued attwo shillings and sixpence. The armyin Bengal, &c. is always paid in sonaut
rupees, which makes a difference of4 percent, between the sicca rupees inwhich coin the civilians are paid.
RUPTARII, Routers and Ryters , sti-pendiary foreign troops who were paidout of the privy purse by our ancientkings, or suffered to live upon freequarters. They were known by thevarious names of Ruptarii, Routers andRyters: the last term comes from theGerman signifying a horseman or knight.They were also called Braban^ons, orpersons from Brabant, now Belgium ,Provencales, Coterelli and Flemings ,and were really a set of freebooters ofall nations, ready to embrace any sidefor hire.
RUPTURE, a disease which dis-qualifies a man from being admittedas a soldier; but as some men are ca-pable of producing and reducing arupture with great ease, they shouldnot be discharged in slight cases, as bythe use of a truss they may be enabledto do duty for a long time. See Truss.
Rupture. This word signifies thecommencement of hostilities betweenany tvvo or more powers.
Rupture, incording , or burstenness ,in a horse , is when the rim or thin film,or caul, which holds up his entrails, isbroken or overstrained, or stretched, sothat the guts fall down.
The signs which indicate a rupture ina horse, are his forsaking his meat, andstanding shoring and leaning on the sidewhere he is hurt.
RUSE, Fr. cunning, trick, ingenuity.It is applied to military matters, andsignifies stratagem.
RUSER, Fr. to make use of strata-gems. II est permis de ruser a la guerre ,it is lawful to make use of stratagemsin war.
RUSES de guerre , Fr. stratagems ofwar. See Stratagems .
RUSSOOT, lnd. a tribe of Hindoos,whose particular duty is the care ofhorses.
IiUSSUMDAR, lnd . a person de-riving a particular perquisite.
RUSTRE, Fr. According to theauthor of the Nouveau DictionnaireMilitaire> a lance which the ancientsused in prize-fighting was so called Wehave carefully examined our Latin au-thorities for its derivation, but the onlyword that seems to approach its mean-ing is,
RUTRUM, which Adam Littleton5 F a