rt; and it was
with great difficulty that we prevented damage being done.

Fighting continued during the day among the other portions of the force,
and Nos. 1 and 2 Columns made further advances among the streets, the
guns and mortars from the bastions throwing shot and shell far into the
crowded parts of the city. Houses in commanding situations were taken
and made secure from assault by defences of sand-bags. Great judgment
was shown in these operations, and the losses in consequence were
comparatively few; but the enemy as yet gave no signs of retreating
from Delhi, and our leaders felt that great exertions would still be
necessary before the city fell entirely into our hands.

_September 17_.--During the 17th and 18th a constant fire of shells from
upwards of twenty mortars was directed from the magazine and College
grounds on the Selimgarh Fort and the Palace, those from the bastions
still firing into a large portion of the city. Skirmishing went on at
the advanced posts, and a regular unbroken line of communication was
established from one end of our pickets to the other.

_September 18_.--On the 18th my regiment moved from the magazine and
took up its quarters in the Protestant Church, close to the main guard
and Kashmir Gate, and at no great distance from the northern walls of
the city. This church had been built by the gallant and philanthropic
Colonel Alexander Skinner, C.B., an Eurasian and an Irregular cavalry
commander of some eminence during the wars in the beginning of the
century. He also erected at his own expense a Hindoo temple and a
Mohammedan mosque, giving as his reason that all religions were alike,
and that, in his opinion, each one was entitled to as much consideration
as the other.

This church in which we were now quartered had been sadly desecrated by
the rebels and fanatics of the city. They had, in their religious zeal,
torn down the pulpit and reading-desk, defaced emblems, broken up the
pews and the benches, and shattered all the panes of glass, while here
and there inside the building were remains of their cooking-places, with
broken fragments of utensils. The walls, too, had suffered much from the
effects of our bombardment from September 11 to 14, the church being
in the line of fire directed on the bastions. Many, no doubt, would
consider it a sacrilege to quarter English troops in this sacred
edifice, but the exigencies of war required its use for this purpose,
and of all the bui