bastion. We were
soon descried by the enemy, who depressed their guns and fired at us
with grape, fortunately without hitting any of our party. We were in a
complete dilemma, under fire of the batteries, cut off from our force,
and liable at any moment to be surrounded; so, deeming discretion the
better part of valour, we turned about and ran with all speed to the
rear, coming upon a troop of Horse Artillery, which was halted amongst
some gardens.

Soon the main body of our force returned from the pursuit of the rebels,
whom they had driven to within 600 yards of the city wall; and joining
our own detachment, who had given us up as lost, we returned to camp
about sundown.

Again we had to lament the loss of many fine officers and soldiers.
Nearly 200 men had been killed and wounded--a sad diminution of our
little army, which, had it long continued, would have entirely decimated
the Delhi Field Force. The enemy, however, had suffered most severely,
their loss amounting to quite 1,000 men; and the next morning they were
seen for hours carting the dead bodies into the city. Unusual bravery
was shown by the rebels on this day: they stood fairly in the open, and
also attacked the pickets with great pertinacity, assaulting one called
the "Sammy House" for hours, and leaving eighty dead bodies in its
front, all killed by the infantry of the Guides, who most gallantly held
the picket against overwhelming numbers.

Cholera all this time raged in the force, and carried off its victims
daily, my own regiment and the 8th being the principal sufferers. It was
melancholy to enter the hospital, to see the agony and hear the groans
of the men, many of them with their dying breath lamenting the hard fate
which had stretched them on a sick-bed and prevented them from doing
their duty in the ranks against the enemy. Fever and ague, too, were
very prevalent, and hospital gangrene broke out, which attained such
virulence that many wounded died from its effects; while of amputations,
I believe not one recovered during the whole siege.

We were also in the midst of the Indian monsoon, the most unhealthy
season of the year, when rain descended in torrents almost every day, a
hot, muggy atmosphere increasing the sickness and adding to the eternal
plague of flies, a plague the most nauseating it has ever been my lot to
experience. When off duty, it was the custom of some of the officers
to pass the time fishing in the canal at our rear. Here