As I gazed down at the dense crowd of fighting men in the court, I
shuddered, for, driven to bay as the sepoys were, and with no means of
escape when the attack was made, the carnage would be frightful, and all
the worse from the fact that the men would rush in and occupy the
windows that looked upon the court from whence a sustained fire could be
kept up on our men, one which would be frightful.

All at once it struck me that perhaps now the doors of my apartments
would be unguarded, and I ran to look; but, on drawing aside the
hangings, there sat Salaman and four attendants, while behind them were
at least twenty well-armed men.

I went back, feeling that, whatever happened, these men would be
faithful to their duty, though how I was to have got out of the palace
and past the crowd of soldiers at every window and door, I had not
stopped to think.

I again returned to the window from which I had watched before, and
stood gazing out at the crowded court where the men had now been reduced
to something more like military order, and it was a wonderful sight to
see the swarthy faces with their gleaming eyes, and the flashing weapons
the men carried. The moon poured down its silver light to mingle
strangely with the glare of the torches many of the men bore; while away
to my right the burning houses sent a glow of orange so strong that the
broad end of the court opposite to me gleamed as if the fire was there
as well.

It was a terrible pause that, and I knew that before long the attack
would come, when the place would either be carried at once or its
defenders starved into submission; for, though there was water in
abundance, I did not believe there could be food to provide for a
garrison.

I was thinking all this when a voice behind me made me start, and face
round to the speaker.

"It is long hours since my lord has eaten," said Salaman. "Shall I
bring in some food?"

"Who can eat at a time like this?" I cried; and I signed to him to go,
turning back directly after, for I could hear a peculiar rattling sound
in the distance which I knew well enough.

It was what I had anticipated; they were bringing up the guns.

Almost at that moment the firing from the roof recommenced, and was
answered from different directions; but it ceased as quickly as it had
begun, for all at once there was the dull echoing thud of a six-pounder,
and a rush of men from the barricade in the gateway, through which a
round shot plung