Sleep would at times overpower them; they sank down on the floor, but the mental tension was too great to permit them long to rest. Their fearful position was still present to their minds, and after a few minutes of troubled sleep, they would start to their feet with the impression that the enemy were upon them. No enemy appeared; on finding that it was a false alarm, they would keep watch for a time, till, overpowered by sleep and exhaustion, they again sank upon the floor. One desperate man proposed to his comrades to rush forth and fight their way back to the rear-guard; two offered to join him in the attempt; the others refused to leave the wounded in the hands of the enemy. About two o’clock in the morning they were roused to a fresh life by the sound of heavy firing close at hand. Their hearts leaped to their mouths as they heard the sharp crack of the Enfield rifles and the rush of the enemy over their heads. Hurrah! Havelock had not forgotten them; it was their own countrymen advancing to the rescue. The revulsion of feeling made them wild with joy; they shouted with all their might, “Europeans! Europeans!” they cheered them on to the attack—“Charge them! charge them! Keep to your right!” The firing died away in the distance; in a few minutes all was silent. They listened for the advancing tramp of armed men, but no such sound was heard; again they gave themselves up to despair. Any fate was preferable to further suspense; they agreed to fight their way to the Residency or perish in the attempt; but on creeping forward under the shadow of the building, they observed a large body of men clustered round a fire in the archway. Escape in that way was evidently impossible; it would have been madness for a few starving men to attack a body of the enemy who had just repulsed our own troops; so they crept back to their former place of shelter. The bitterness of death was already past; they could meet their fate with indifference. The dreary hours passed silently on till a little after daybreak, when they heard the sound of distant firing; it failed to rouse them from their apathy; the hope of deliverance had died out within them. The sound came nearer and nearer, till at length they could distinguish the sharp crack of the Enfields, and the regular rattling volleys which told them that their countrymen were at hand. Ryan, the sentry, with the usual vivacity of his country, was the first to express the feelings of his comrades; jumping up with sudden energy, he shouted, “Oh, boys! them’s our own chaps!” Ryan’s language was far from being elegant or correct; but their position was too critical for weighing the niceties of speech, and we question whether Demosthenes himself could have spoken more to the point. Its effect was immediate and striking; those who were prostrated by despair sprang to their feet with renewed energy, and shouted to their deliverers to keep to the right. “Cheer together, men,” cried Home. They