d bravery: "Ah, sir," said John, "I knew our boys would fight all the
better when cheered by the bagpipes."

"Within about two hours from the time the signal for the assault was
given, over eight hundred and sixty of the enemy lay dead within the
inner court, and no quarter was sought or given. By this time we were
broken up in small parties in a series of separate fights, all over the
different detached buildings of the palace. Captain M'Donald being dead,
the men who had been on piquet with me joined a party under Lieutenant
Sergison, and while breaking in the door of a room, Mr. Sergison was
shot dead at my side with several men. When we had partly broken in the
door, I saw that there was a large number of the enemy inside the room,
well armed with swords and spears, in addition to fire-arms of all
sorts, and, not wishing to be either killed myself or have more of the
men who were with me killed, I divided my party, placing some at each
side of the door to shoot every man who showed himself, or attempted to
rush out. I then sent two men back to the breach, where I knew Colonel
Napier with his engineers were to be found, to get a few bags of
gunpowder with slow-matches fixed, to light and pitch into the room.
Instead of finding Napier, the two men sent by me found the redoubtable
Major Hodson who had accompanied Napier as a volunteer in the storming
of the palace. Hodson did not wait for the powder-bags, but, after
showing the men where to go for them, came running up himself, sabre in
hand. 'Where are the rebels?' he said. I pointed to the door of the
room, and Hodson, shouting 'Come on!' was about to rush in. I implored
him not to do so, saying, 'It's certain death; wait for the powder; I've
sent men for powder-bags,' Hodson made a step forward, and I put out my
hand to seize him by the shoulder to pull him out of the line of the
doorway, when he fell back shot through the chest. He gasped out a few
words, either 'Oh, my wife!' or, 'Oh, my mother!'--I cannot now rightly
remember--but was immediately choked by blood. At the time I thought the
bullet had passed through his lungs, but since then I have seen the
memoir written by his brother, the Rev. George H. Hodson, Vicar of
Enfield, in which it is stated that the bullet passed through his liver.
However, I assisted to get him lifted into a _dooly_ (by that time the
bearers had got in and were collecting the wounded who were unable to
walk), and I sent him back to whe