scared into inaction by the
very audacity of the feat. They laid the bags against the gate; then a
terrible fire was again directed upon them. A sergeant fell dead; Home
dropped unhurt into the ditch; Salkeld, holding the portfire, was shot
through arm and leg, and fell back helpless. He handed the portfire to
Corporal Burgess, who was shot dead before he could light the fuse.
Carmichael took the portfire and had just lighted the fuse, when he
received a mortal wound. Smith, fearing that Carmichael had failed,
sprang forward, match-box in hand; but the portfire exploded just as he
reached the gate, and he plunged into the ditch to escape the greater
explosion. Next moment the gate was shattered to fragments. Now was the
bugler's turn. Three times he sounded the advance, but amid the din all
around it was not heard. The explosion itself, however, gave the signal,
and Colonel Campbell led his men forward at the double, and dashed into
the city but a few minutes after the first and second columns had
entered it.

The fourth column had meanwhile suffered a disastrous check. The guns
which were to accompany it were late in arriving, and when they did
come, the gunners were only sufficient to work one out of the four.
Major Reid was waiting until others could be found, when he heard the
explosion at the Kashmir gate and learnt that a portion of his native
troops were already engaged at the Idgah. It was time to be up and
doing, so he set off to the attack of Kishenganj, leaving his guns
behind. But a musket-ball struck him on the head, and he fell insensible
into the ditch. There was some disorder among the men, and a doubt as to
who was now in command of the column; and when Reid settled that, on
returning to consciousness, by ordering Captain Lawrence to take the
command, the fire of artillery and musketry from the unbreached walls of
Kishenganj was so heavy as to necessitate the withdrawal of the column
to their starting-place at Hindu Rao's house. Hope Grant's cavalry,
drawn up to guard their flank when they pressed forward to the city, as
had been the intention, were forced to sit their horses for two long
hours without a chance of doing anything, under a hurricane of lead and
iron from the Burn bastion. Only a third of them were British, but the
troopers of the Guides and Hodson's Horse behaved as steadily under this
critical ordeal as the British Lancers. In the excitement of action men
may face lightheartedly dangers