and getting some food,
most of the officers gathered on the flat roof of the college,
whence a fine view was obtainable over the town. The Residency had
been already pointed out to them, and the British flag could be
seen floating above it. Several very large buildings, surrounded
for the most part with walled gardens, rose above the low roofs of
the native houses in the intervening space.

"The way is pretty open. A good deal of the ground seems to be
occupied with gardens, and most of the houses are so small that
they could not hold many men."

"I agree with you, Mallett. It is evident that we shall be passing
through an open suburb rather than the town itself. Those big
buildings, if held in force, will give us a good deal of trouble.
They are regular fortresses."

"I don't think that any of them are built of stone. They all seem
to be whitewashed."

"That is so," the Major agreed, as he examined them through his
field glass. "I suppose stone is scarce in this neighbourhood, but
it is probable that the walls are of brickwork, and very thick.
They will have to be regularly breached before we can carry them.

"It makes one sad to think that that flag, which has waved over the
Residency for the last five months, defying all the efforts of
enormously superior numbers, is to come down, and that these
scoundrels will be able to exult in the possession of the place
that has defied all their efforts to take it. Still one feels that
Sir Cohn's decision is a necessary one. It would never do to have
six or seven thousand men shut up there, when there is urgent work
to be done in a score of other places. Besides, it would need a
vast magazine of provisions to maintain them. Our force, even when
joined by the garrison, would be wholly inadequate for so
tremendous a task as reducing to submission a city containing at
least half-a-million inhabitants, together with thirty or forty
thousand mutineers and a host of Oude's best men, with the
advantage of the possession of a score or two of buildings, all of
which are positive fortresses."

"No, there is nothing for it but to fall back again till we have a
force sufficient to capture the whole city, and utterly defeat its
defenders. With us away, this place will become the focus of the
mutiny. Half the fugitives from Delhi will find their way here, and
at least we shall be able to crush them at one blow, instead of
having to scour the country for them for months. The more of