which had been neglected for many years,
was cleared out; and the side made steeper, so that an attacking
party would have to use ladders, both for descending into it and
climbing out. The bastions were repaired, as far as could be done;
and the houses in the lane that ran round, inside the wall, were
all loopholed for musketry.

Many of the irregular cavalry had deserted; but the Sepoys stood
firm, knowing how terrible were the cruelties perpetrated, by
Holkar, on all who fell into his hands. Their number was small; but
they were, to some extent, strengthened by the levies brought in by
the zemindars.

There was no time to be lost for, on the 2nd of September, General
Lake had approached to within a mile of Muttra; which had already
been abandoned by Holkar, whose horsemen made their appearance
before Delhi on the 7th. The irregular cavalry and those of the
zemindars were ordered to attack them but, as soon as they left the
town, they dispersed and rode away.

The next day the enemy's infantry and artillery came up, and a
heavy fire was immediately opened on the southeast angle of the
city wall. In twenty-four hours the whole of the parapet was
demolished, and some partial breaches made in the wall itself. The
Sepoys, encouraged by the presence and efforts of Ochterlony and
Burns, stood their ground with great courage and, at nightfall,
laboured incessantly at repairing the breaches, and in making a new
parapet with sandbags.

Towards morning they formed up; passed out through one of the
breaches, led by their officers; made a rush at the battery that
had been doing so much damage, bayoneted or drove off the enemy
stationed there, and spiked the guns.

In the meantime, some guns had been playing against the southern
walls. Here they were able to approach, through gardens and the
ruins of a village, until near the defences and, establishing a
powerful battery, opened fire, and soon made a breach in the walls
between the Turkoman and Ajmere gates.

Unable to hinder them the Sepoys, aided by a portion of the
population, worked from the morning of the 10th until that of the
12th to form an inner defence. The houses near the breach were
pulled down, and the materials used for forming strong barricades
at the mouths of the streets leading from it. The houses themselves
were loopholed, and everything was prepared for a desperate
defence. During that day the guns continued to enlarge the breach;
and the Sepoys, who h