In June cholera broke out in the camp, and early in July Sir Henry Barnard was among its victims, while the 8th and 61st regiments suffered considerably. Again and again the rebels sallied forth, only to be beaten back, and the fighting proceeded gallantly week after week, during which time Major Tombs, Lieutenant Hill, and a number of men gained the V.C. Then Brigadier-General John Nicholson, having gained a brilliant victory at Nujjuffhur, and prevented an attack upon the rear of the British camp, rode in on August 7th. Shortly after his little army marched in; it comprised 680 men of the 52nd, a wing of the 61st, the 2nd Punjab Infantry, and a field battery with detachments of Beloochees and military police. The besiegers were waiting for the siege train with which to breach the walls, and the mutineers having learned that it was _en route_, sallied forth in considerable numbers to intercept it; but Nicholson, with 1,600 infantry, 400 cavalry, and a battery of field guns, set out on August 25th to save the train. The troops had to cross the swamps, made more difficult by the ceaseless rain; but after wading through them, the water sometimes over the horses' backs, and along the rain-drenched roads, they came up with the enemy at Nujutgurh after a march of twelve hours. The mutineers numbered 6,000, but the tired and drenched soldiers of Britain, led by the daring Nicholson, charged the enemy, placed 800 of them _hors de combat_, captured 13 guns, and sent the sepoys flying back to Delhi. Retracing their steps, the little force, having lost 60 men, arrived back in camp, having in forty hours, during twenty-four of which they were foodless, marched 35 miles and beaten and dispersed an army of well-trained men. [Illustration: HONG-KONG PLAGUE MEDAL. Awarded to about 350 of the Shropshire Light Infantry, Engineers, and men of the R.N.] [Illustration: (Obverse.) EGYPTIAN MEDAL FOR 1882.] [Illustration: (Obverse.) KHEDIVE'S BRONZE STAR FOR 1882.] The siege train arrived on September 4th, together with a wing of the 8th Detachment of the 9th and 60th, and a battalion of Beloochees. The guns were mounted, and by the 11th ready for action, when fire was opened and incessantly sustained against the Cashmere and Watergates until breaches had been made, and then it was determined to assault the city.