l try, if your honour pleases; but I should rather see your honour
do it, to finish the work you are just after completing, and I will try
and do the rest."

Thus went round the merry joke, and we were all laughing heartily at
poor Pat's bulls and drollery, when a whisper was heard running the
lines, "Fall in, storming-party!" On went the pointed bayonet; in went
the new flint. Everybody was busy in an instant, and naught was heard
save the hammering of flints and the fixing of bayonets. This was about
three o'clock in the afternoon. We crossed the Nerbuddah, and marched
along the bed of the river to our other breaching-battery, and there
rendezvoused for a time, till all was ready.

The gallant general on whose staff I had acted had volunteered to lead
the storming-party in person, as it was supposed we had a sharp job
before us. I, as part of his staff, did not of course remain behind, but
had the honour to participate with the general in the toils and glory of
the day. Our situations, I assure the reader, were no sinecures; for we
fought and fagged hard for nearly three hours.

About four o'clock the party moved on, led by the brave general and his
suite. The storming-party consisted of two companies of the Bengal 14th
regiment Native Infantry, supported by the 13th regiment. We stole
slowly on along the bank, every tongue as still as the midnight thief.
About ten or twenty paces before we got to the breach, the column was
visible to a projecting bastion of the fort, from which a strong party
of Arabs was dispatched, to stay our progress and oppose our entrance.
These for a considerable time disputed our entry, but our brave native
troops, inspired by the cheering of their gallant leader, soon beat them
from their posts. They then took possession of some huts that had
escaped being burnt, and fired through loop-holes; but they soon burnt
themselves out, by setting fire, either by intention or accident, to
these huts. This for a moment stopped our further progress, as we could
not pass the flaming huts. Here we lost some few men; and, seeing that
the destruction of numbers of our brave sepoys was inevitable, if we
remained long in this position, we rushed through the flames, and on the
opposite side found a large body of men drawn up to oppose us. For a
short time the struggle was hard; but our brave little general soon gave
the word, "Charge!" It was then that the butchery commenced. For a time
our brave opponents