In Times of Peril: A Tale of IndiaHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
In Times of Peril: A Tale of India
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
India -- History -- Sepoy Rebellion, 1857-1858 -- Juvenile fiction
As the Rifles dashed forward in front, and the head of the column
advanced, a terrific fire of musketry broke out from wall and bastion,
which the British, all necessity for concealment being over, answered
with a tremendous cheer as they swept forward. Arrived at the ditch
there was a halt. It took some time to place the ladders, and officers
and men fell fast under the hail of bullets. Then as they gathered in
strength in the ditch there was one wild cheer, and they dashed up the
slope of rubbish and stones, and passed through the breach.
The entrance to Delhi was won.
Scrambling breathlessly up, keeping just behind their gallant general,
the Warreners were among the first to win their way into the city.
An equally rapid success had attended the assault upon the breach in
the Water bastion by the second column. Nor were the third far behind
in the assault through the Cashmere gate, But here a deed had first to
be done which should live in the memories of Englishmen so long as we
exist as a nation.
As the head of the assaulting column moved forward a little party
started at the double toward the Cashmere gate. The party consisted of
Lieutenants Home and Salkeld, of the Royal Engineers, and Sergeants
Smith and Carmichael, and Corporal Burgess, of the same corps; Bugler
Hawthorne of the Fifty-second regiment; and twenty-four native sappers
and miners under Havildars Mahor and Tilluh Sing. Each of the sappers
carried a bag of powder, and, covered by such shelter as the fire of
the Sixtieth skirmishers could give them, they advanced to the gate.
This gate stands close to an angle in the wall, and from the parapets a
storm of musketry fire was poured upon them. When they reached the
ditch they found the drawbridge destroyed, but crossed in single file
upon the beams on which it rested. The gate was of course closed, but a
small postern-door beside it was open, and through this the mutineers
added a heavy fire to that which streamed from above. The sappers laid
their bags against the gate, and slipped down into the ditch to allow
the firing party to do their work. Many had already fallen. Sergeant
Carmichael was shot dead as he laid down his powder bag; Havildar Mahor
was wounded. As Lieutenant Salkeld tried to fire the fuse he fell, shot
through the arm and leg; while Havildar Tilluh Sing, who stood by, was
killed, and Ramloll Sepoy was wounded. As he fell Lieutenant Salkeld
handed the slow match to Corporal Burgess, who lit the fuse, but fell
mortally wounded as he did so. Then those who survived jumped, or were
helped, into the ditch, and in another moment a great explosion took
place, and the Cashmere gate blew into splinters, killing some forty
mutineers who were behind it. Then Lieutenant Home, seeing that the way
was clear, ordered Bugler Hawthorne to sound the advance, and the
assaulting column came rushing forward with a cheer, and burst through
the gateway into the city.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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