Windham’s retreat involved the sacrifice of all the military stores in the town, a great supply of ammunition, the mess plate, and the paymaster’s chests and baggage of four Queen’s regiments, &c. Some 500 tents, as one item alone, were turned into a huge bonfire that night by the exultant rebels. But, though Windham had fallen back to the entrenchments at the bridge-head, he was as ready for fight as ever. He held a council of his officers that night and proposed to sally out under cover of darkness and fall on the enemy, a proposal which at least proves the unquenchable quality of his courage. This plan was not adopted, but, it being discovered that a gun had been overturned and abandoned in the streets of the city, Windham sent out 100 men of the 64th, with a few sailors, to bring that gun in. It was a feat of singular daring, carried out with singular success, and this is how the story of it is told by an officer who took part in the adventure:— We marched off under the guidance of a native, who said he would take us to the spot where the gun lay. We told him he should be well rewarded if he brought us to the gun, but if he brought us into a trap we had a soldier by him “at full cock” ready to blow his brains out. We passed our outside pickets, and entered the town through very narrow streets without a single Sepoy being seen, or a shot fired on either side. We crept along. Not a soul spoke a word. All was still as death; and after marching this way into the very heart of the town our guide brought us to the very spot where the gun was capsized. The soldiers were posted on each side, and then we went to work. Not a man spoke above his breath, and each stone was laid down quietly. When we thought we had cleared enough I ordered the men to put their shoulders to the wheel and gun, and when all was ready and every man had his pound before him I said “Heave!” and up she righted. We then limbered up, called the soldiers to follow, and we marched into the entrenchment with our gun without a shot being fired. On the morning of the 28th, Windham, still bent on “aggressive defence,” sallied out to fight the enemy in the open—or rather on either flank. On the left front the Rifles and the 82nd, under Walpole, thrashed the enemy in a most satisfactory manner, capturing two 18-pounders. On the right, the 64th and the 34th, under Carthew, fought for hours with desperate courage. General Wilson, in particular, led two companies of the 64th in a very audacious attempt to capture a battery of the enemy. Wilson himself was killed, and two officers of the 64th—Stirling and McCrae—were each cut down in the act of spiking one of the enemy’s guns, and the attempt, though gallant as anything recorded in the history of war, failed.