ive troops fought with the most determined bravery; Sikhs,
Punjabis, and Goorkhas, side by side with their English comrades,
pressed into the forefront of the strife, helping in the most material
manner towards the day's success.

It was impossible to ascertain the loss sustained by the enemy. Dead
bodies lay thick in the streets and open spaces, and numbers were killed
in the houses; but the greater part of those who fell were no
doubt carried off by the rebels. In the ardour of the fight many
non-combatants also lost their lives, our men, mad and excited, making
no distinction.

There is no more terrible spectacle than a city taken by storm. All the
pent-up passions of men are here let loose without restraint. Roused
to a pitch of fury from long-continued resistance, and eager to take
vengeance on the murderers of women and children, the men in their
pitiless rage showed no mercy. The dark days of Badajoz and San
Sebastian were renewed on a small scale at Delhi; and during the
assault, seeing the impetuous fury of our men, I could not help
recalling to my mind the harrowing details of the old Peninsular Wars
here reproduced before my eyes.

With the exception of a small amount of looting, the men were too much
occupied with fighting and vengeance to take note of the means of
temptation which lay within their reach in the untold quantities of
spirits in the stores of the city. Strong drink is now, and has in all
ages been, the bane of the British soldier--a propensity he cannot
resist in times of peace, and which is tenfold aggravated when excited
by fighting, and when the wherewithal to indulge it lies spread before
him, as was the case at Delhi. When and by whom begun I cannot say, but
early in the morning of the 15th the stores had been broken into, and
the men revelled in unlimited supplies of drink of every kind. It is a
sad circumstance to chronicle, and the drunkenness which ensued might
have resulted in serious consequences to the army had the enemy taken
advantage of the sorry position we were in. Vain were the attempts made
at first to put a stop to the dissipations, and not till orders went
forth from the General to destroy all the liquor that could be found did
the orgy cease, and the men return crestfallen and ashamed to a sense
of their duties. The work of destruction was carried out chiefly by the
Sikhs and Punjabis, and the wasted drink ran in streams through the
conduits of the city.

_September 1