them make a splendid rush,
but three poor fellows and a native water-bearer fell, whom I saw crawl
under cover afterwards. All this time the artillery were banging away,
but as they made so slight an impression on the gate, two guns of the
Shah's were moved down the hill a little to our left, and within about
one hundred and fifty yards of the gate. They fired two shots; the first
made the old gate shake; the second was more fortunate, and took it
about the middle, and brought it completely down. Our men gave a general
hurrah; and Outram galloping down the hill at full speed, gave the word,
"Forward;" and General Willshire came up to us at his best pace, waving
his hat, "Forward, Queen's," he sung out, "or the 17th will be in before
you." On we rushed again for the gate as hard as we could; the enemy
treated us to one more volley, by which they did some execution, and
Dickenson was wounded in his leg, and then abandoning the lower defences
of the town, retreated to the citadel.

However, on entering the gate, we found matters not so easy as we
expected. The streets were very narrow and so intricate that they formed
a perfect labyrinth, and it was very difficult to make any progress
through them. The men, therefore, soon got scattered about and broken
into small parties; and some, I am afraid, thought of loot, or plunder,
more than of endeavouring to find their way to the citadel. I forgot to
mention that during the time we were under cover, the 17th and 31st
Native Infantry had moved round the hill and taken up a position on our
right. These two regiments were ordered forward and into the town and at
the same time and the same gate as we were. The whole force, therefore,
entered the town nearly together. I followed with a party of our men,
and we pushed along as well as we could through streets, by-ways, &c.
This was rather nervous work, as we never could tell what we had to
expect before us; there was no open enemy to be seen, but whenever we
came to an opening exposed to the citadel, a few bullets invariably came
whizzing in about us, and knocked over a man or two; moreover, having
the recollection of Ghuzni fresh in our minds, we expected every moment
a rush of some desperate fellows from the narrow holes we passed
through. After groping my way through narrow passages and all sorts of
agreeable places, I found myself in the exact spot I had started
from--viz., the gate by which we had entered. Here a man of our Light