This was the party that undertook that desperate work, and did it in the face of death. The devoted band advanced at double-quick march towards the Cashmere-gate; Lieutenant Stone, with Sergeants Smith and Carmichael and Havildar Mahor, all the Sappers, leading and carrying the powder-bags, followed by Lieutenant Salkeld, Corporal Burgess, and a portion of the remainder of the party. These advanced men of the forlorn hope reached the gateway unhurt to find that part of the drawbridge had been destroyed, but walking like cats across the beams that remained, they bore each his bag of powder, and laid it against the gate, through a wicket in which the enemy were firing on them as they advanced. Sergeant Carmichael fell dead as he lodged his bag in its place, and Havildar Mahor was severely wounded; but the work was done, and the advanced party slipped down into the ditch to make room for Lieutenant Salkeld to bring up his party to fire the powder. Before he could set light to the charge the Lieutenant was shot in the leg, and handed over his slow-match to Corporal Burgess, who fell mortally wounded at the moment that he had accomplished the duty which he had undertaken. Havildar Tilluh Sing, of the Sikhs, was also wounded, Ram Loll Sepoy, of the same corps, was killed during the operation, and Lieutenant Salkeld afterwards died of his wounds: but the match had taken effect-the Cashmeregate was blown up, and amidst the crash and roar the bugle called to the assault, and the entrance to Delhi was carried with a rush by the 75th, the 1st European Fusiliers, and the 2nd Punjab Infantry, under General Nicholson. This column, after having desperately fought its way into the city, re-formed and moved towards the right in the direction of the Cabulgate; but the fall of its General, and the tremendous fire poured on the men from the guns that commanded a narrow pathway, checked its onward progress.

Meanwhile the second column of attack under Brigadier Jones forced their way through a breach in the Water-gate and took possession of the walls as far as the Cabul-gate, where they turned one of the enemy's guns against the Lahore-gate, from which the mutineers were firing heavily. Colonel Campbell of the 52nd commanded the third column, which rushed in at the breach of the Cashmere-gate, and after a desperate fight took possession of the Main Guard, the

round tower already noticed as the scene of a massacre. They then fought their way to the Great Mosque in the centre of the city, but found that its side arches were bricked up and its gates closed; so, as they had no means of facing it, and were surrounded by the fire of musketry from the adjacent houses, they were forced to fall back.

Major Tombs with two troops of horse artillery, and Brigadier Hope Grant with a cavalry brigade, formed in front of the walls and proceeded to the Cabul-gate, where, although they were exposed to a desperate fire, they prevented the enemy from attacking our batteries; but within the city our troops had terrible work to do, for it swarmed with armed rebels, and every advance had to be gained by determined fighting. But they had set themselves to the work, and by the morning of the 20th they had taken the Lahore-gate, and thence advanced upon all the other works till the whole of the external defences of the city were in their hands. From the time of their first entering the city, an uninterrupted and vigorous fire from their guns and mortars was kept up on all the principal posts of the rebels; and as they took up their position in the streets, the light guns were brought forward and discharged on the houses of the neighbourhood. So steady was the advance of our determined troops that the King was compelled to escape from the palace; the people of the city left it and went outside the walls; and at last the rebel troops fled precipitately, abandoning their camp and a great deal of their property, their sick and wounded, and most of their field artillery; and from 4,000 to 5,000 of them retreated across the bridge of boats into the Doab (the country between the Jumna and the Ganges), while the remainder took their way down the right bank of the river, leaving Delhi in our hands. The gate of the palace was then blown in; it was soon occupied by our troops, and the headquarters of General Wilson established there.

One of the officers, in a description of this building, says: -"On the 21st I rode down to see the palace. The wall and entrance are the finest parts. The interior is dirty, filthy, and in great disorder, Pandy1 having revelled in its cool

1 "Pandy" was the name given by our soldiers to the mutineers, the Sepoy who shot his officer on parade, and so being first in the rebellion, having been named Pandy.

archways. The Hall of Justice and the King's Throne are entirely built of white marble, and the latter is inlaid with stones and mosaics. I went all over the State apartments and the Harem. The latter is a curious place, and had a remarkable appearance, its floor covered with guitars, bangles, &c., and redolent of sandal-wood. The fair daughters of Cashmere had their swing in the centre of the room. They had left in a great hurry; dresses, silks, slippers, were lying on all sides.

"On leaving the palace I met a doolie, surrounded by some cavalry, and a few Natives on foot. Its inmate was a thinfaced, anxious-looking old man. This was the King of Hindostan, the descendant of the great Moguls, entering his palace in the hands of his enemies."

The King, who in his treachery to the British Government had connived at the rebellion and the murder of so many Europeans, had fled with two of his sons when the victorious troops took possession of the palace; and Lieutenant Hodson obtained leave to pursue them, having received information from a member of the royal family that the King would be willing to surrender himself if his life were spared. Lieutenant Hodson, with a small body of Horse, went to the place where the old man was concealed, and, after a promise of personal safety, took him in custody back to Delhi. He then went off, at the head of a hundred men, to the tomb of the Mogul Emperor Humagoon, an immense pile of buildings at some listance from Delhi, where he had heard the King's sons had taken refuge. After great difficulty they were induced to come out, and were put into a carriage and sent off towards Delhi under a small escort. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Hodson had entered the Mausoleum, and found there some thousands of the rabble of the city armed with all sorts of weapons. These he commanded them to lay down, and, perhaps believing that he had power to punish them if they refused, they complied. Having collected these arms, he returned towards the city, and there overtook the escort, which had been stopped by a disorderly crowd, which showed an evident design to attempt a rescue. Lieutenant Hodson at once galloped up, and seeing the difficulty, exclaimed :

"These are the men who have not only rebelled against the Government, but ordered and witnessed the massacre and

shameful exposure of innocent women and children, and thus therefore the Government punishes such traitors taken in open resistance !"

He then shot them both on the spot. The effect is said to have been instantaneous. The Mahommedans of the troop, and some influential Moulvies among the bystanders, exclaiming :

"Well and rightly done! their crime has met with its just penalty! These were they who gave the signal for the death of helpless women and children, and now a righteous judgment has fallen on them!"

The remaining weapons were then laid down, and the crowd slowly and quietly dispersed. Soon afterwards two others of the King's sons were tried before a military commission, and ordered to be executed. The King himself, after a long trial, was sent to Rangoon as a State prisoner for the remainder of his life. No time was lost in organising a pursuit of the rebels; and a flying column under Colonel Greathed-and afterwards well known as Greathed's column for its activity in crushing the remaining elements of the rebellion-set out from Delhi to cut off the mutineers from the attempt to cross the river into the Doab. Thus, in the words of General Wilson, were "the forces of the rebellion and insurrection, and the scene of so much horrible cruelty, taken and made desolate, the King a prisoner in our hands, and the mutineers, notwithstanding their great numerical superiority, and their vast resources in ordnance and all the munitions and appliances of war, defeated on every occasion of engagement with our troops, driven with slaughter in confusion and dismay from their boasted stronghold."

So widely-spread was the mutiny, that the whole territory represented by the various stations of Meerut, Feroze pore, Allyghur, Roorkee, Nundaur, Lucknow, Cawnpore, Nusseerabad, Neemuch, Benares, Hansi, Hissar, Jhansi, Mehidpore, Jullundur, Azimghur, Futteghur, Jaunpore, Bareilly,

Shahjehanpore, and Allahabad, were in insurrection, and at all these places the rebels, many of whom at first pretended to be faithful that they might disarm suspicion, committed assassinations, while in those stations where ladies and children resided the atrocities were appalling.

At Allahabad the officers were shot down while quite unaware of the conspiracy, and a Mohammedan moulvie, having set himself up as the officer of the King of Delhi, all the Europeans who could be secured were barbarously murdered, and many of them tortured. Some are said to have been burned, and little children were cut to pieces before the eyes of their mothers, who were afterwards murdered. The place was taken less than a week after by reinforcements of British troops and Sikhs, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel O'Neill, who drove out the enemy, and burnt the villages to the ground. At Jhansi, in Bundelcund, to the south of the river Jumna, which joins the Ganges at Allahabad, the outbreak took place on the 4th of June; a few of the Europeans contrived to escape to Nagode and other places, the rest took refuge in the fort, to the number of fifty-five, including women and children. Here, for four days, they defended themselves with great resolution against a continual fire of musketry and cannon. At last, on the 8th of June, two of the gates were forced, and the rebels promised the English officers that, if they would lay down. their arms and cease further resistance, the lives of all in the fort should be spared. Unfortunately, the promises of the miscreants were believed, and the arms were given up, when the officers and the ladies were immediately seized. The former were tied together in a line between some trees, and their heads at once struck off. The children were cut to pieces in the presence of their mothers, and then the poor women were killed one after the other.

At Benares and the other places, similar atrocities were committed; and, till the arrival of the English troops, who after a series of attacks and skirmishes drove the mutineers out, each station was the scene of riot and bloodshed. It was at Cawnpore, however, that the most horrible tragedy of the whole rebellion was enacted.

At this station there were three Native Infantry regiments, and one Native regiment of Light Cavalry, which were in a