s gunners falling before the continuous fire from
the bridge. Again and again the Fusiliers from behind filled their
places, only to be swept down like the rest, and now Maude and a
subaltern were doing the work.

'You must do something,' called out Maude to young Havelock; 'I cannot
fight the guns much longer.' Havelock nodded and rode through the fire
that was raking the road to Neill, urging him to order a charge. But
Neill refused. He was not in command, he replied, and could not take
such a responsibility. The young aide-de-camp did not waste time in
arguing, but hurried on to Fraser-Tytler, only to receive the same
answer. Then, turning his horse's head, he galloped hard down the road,
in the direction of the spot where his father was stationed. In a few
minutes he was back and, reining up his horse at Neill's side, while he
saluted with his sword, he said breathlessly:

'You are to charge the bridge, sir.'

It did not occur to Neill that there had not been time for young
Havelock to have reached his father's position and come back so soon,
and therefore that no such order could have been given by the general,
and was simply the invention of the aide-de-camp himself. Quite
unsuspiciously, therefore, he bade the buglers sound the advance, and
Arnold, with twenty-five of his men, rushed on to the bridge and were
instantly shot down. For fully two minutes Harry Havelock on his horse
kept his position in front of the guns with only a private beside him,
and the dead lying in heaps on all sides.

'Come on! Come on!' he cried, turning in his saddle and waving his
sword, while the fire from the houses was directed upon him, and a ball
went through his hat.

And they 'came on' with a rush, wave upon wave, till the guns were
silenced and the barrier carried.

The aide-de-camp had indeed 'done something.'

[Illustration: The young Aide-de-camp did not waste time in arguing.]

* * * * *

The 78th Highlanders held the bridge for three hours till the whole
force was over, and desperate fighting was going on all the time, for
the enemy was coming up in dense numbers. At length a detachment
advanced to a little temple further up the road, which was held by the
sepoys, and succeeded in turning them out. But once inside, the
Highlanders could only defend it with their swords, for the cartridges
were so swelled by exposure to the rain that they would not go into the
guns. After an hour, you