lamation was
carried with beat of drum through the streets, commanding all the men of
the city, Hindu and Mohammedan alike, to assemble at the Kashmir gate,
bringing picks and shovels; the king himself would lead them forth, and
they would fall on the infidels and sweep them away. The Hindus paid no
heed; but ten thousand faithful Mohammedans, inflamed with fanatic
ardour, their religious feelings wrought upon by shrieking fakirs and
mullahs, congregated at the gates waiting the arrival of their king. But
he came not. Till midnight they remained; then hope died away, and with
despairing hearts the great throng dispersed to their homes.

On the night of the 13th, ere the bombardment ceased, every available
man in the British force, including men just risen from their sick beds
in the hospital, went to his appointed station. The assault was to be
made in four columns. A thousand men,--detachments from the 1st
Fusiliers, the 15th Regiment, and the 2nd Panjab Infantry--under
Nicholson himself, were to storm the breach in the Kashmir bastion, and
escalade the walls. The second column, also a thousand strong, under
Colonel Jones of the 61st, was simultaneously to storm and scale the
Mori bastion. Meanwhile the Kashmir gate was to be blown up, and the
third column, under Colonel Campbell of the 52nd, would sweep in through
the breach. The fourth column, commanded by Major Reid, who had
gallantly held Hindu Rao's house throughout the summer, was to attack
the suburb of Kishenganj and enter by the Lahore gate. A fifth column,
of 1,500 men, was held in reserve to give support to the first, and
Colonel Hope Grant was to post himself on the Ridge, with the cavalry
six hundred strong, to prevent the rebels from re-entering the city when
thrust out of Kishenganj. The whole force consisted of some 7,000 men.

Ahmed had been looking forward with great eagerness to the fight. The
Guides' cavalry, commanded now by Captain Sandford, formed part of Hope
Grant's brigade, and they expected warm work at Kishenganj when Major
Reid had driven the rebels into the open. But on the evening of the 13th
Ahmed was summoned to Nicholson's tent, and learnt, with mingled pride
and disappointment, that he was to accompany the first column. When the
troops entered the city they would require a guide through its network
of streets and lanes, and Hodson had recommended Ahmed for the duty. He
was proud at being selected to serve Nicholson, but at the same ti