a sortie,
with one in reserve. They rushed through the broken walls, and the first
and second columns met at the Kabul Gate. Six days of desperate fighting
followed. On September 20, the gates of the old fortified palace were
broken open, but the inmates had fled. Thus fell the imperial city. The
British army lost 4,000 men, among them Brigadier-General Nicholson, who
led the storming party. The great mutiny at Delhi was stamped out, and the
British flag waved over the capital of Hindustan. This was the turning
point of the Sepoy mutiny.

[Sidenote: British vengeance]

[Sidenote: Delhi princes murdered]

The capture of Delhi was followed by acts of barbarous retribution. Hindu
prisoners were shot from the mouths of cannon. Hodson, of "Hodson's Horse,"
a young officer who had once been cashiered for high-handed conduct in
India, offered to General Wilson to capture the king and the royal family
of Delhi. General Wilson gave him authority to make the attempt, but
stipulated that the life of the king should be spared. By the help of
native spies Hodson discovered that when Delhi was taken the king and his
family had taken refuge in the tomb of the Emperor Hoomayoon. Hodson went
boldly to this place with a few of his troopers. He found that the royal
family of Delhi were surrounded there by a vast crowd of armed adherents.
He called upon them all to lay down their arms at once. They threw down
their arms, and the king surrendered himself to Hodson. Next day the three
royal princes of Delhi were captured. Hodson borrowed a carbine from one of
his troopers and shot the three princes dead. Their corpses, half naked,
were exposed for some days at one of the gates of Delhi. Hodson committed
the deed deliberately. Several days before, he wrote to a friend to say
that if he got into the palace of Delhi, "the House of Timour will not be
worth five minutes' purchase, I ween." On the day after the deed he wrote:
"In twenty-four hours I disposed of the principal members of the House of
Timour the Tartar. I am not cruel; but I confess that I do rejoice in the
opportunity of ridding the earth of these ruffians."

[Sidenote: The Princess of Jhansi]

[Sidenote: An Amazon's death]

The mutineers had seized Gwalior, the capital of the Maharajah Scindia, who
escaped to Agra. The English had to attack the rebels, retake Gwalior and
restore Scindia. One of those who fought to the last on the mutineers' side
was the Ranee, or Princess of