could judge, there was nothing more to be
done, though still the feeling would come home to me that it was a great
place for forty men to defend, if attacked by any number. Captain Dyer
must have seen that, for he had arranged to have a sort of citadel at
the north end by the gateway, and this was to be the last refuge, where
all the ammunition and food and no end of chatties of water were stowed
down in the great vault-place, which went under this part of the
building and a good deal of the court. Then the watch was set, trebled
this time, on roof and at window, and we waited impatiently for the
morning. Yes, we all of us, I believe, waited impatiently for the
morning, when I think if we had known all that was to come, we should
have knelt down and prayed for the darkness to keep on hour after hour,
for days, and weeks, and months, sooner than the morning should have
broke as it did upon a rabble of black faces, some over white clothes,
some over the British uniform that they had disgraced; and as I, who was
on the west roof, heard the first hum of their coming, and caught the
first glimpse of the ragged column, I gave the alarm, setting my teeth
hard as I did so; for, after many years of soldiering, I was now for the
first time to see a little war in earnest.

Captain Dyer's first act on the alarm being given was to double the
guard over the three blacks, now secured in the strongest room he could
find, the black nurse being well looked after by the women. Then, quick
almost as thought, every man was at the post already assigned to him;
the women and children were brought into the corner rooms by the gates,
and then we waited excitedly for what should follow. The captain now
ordered me out of the little party under a sergeant, and made me his
orderly, and so it happened that always being with or about him, I knew
how matters were going on, and was always carrying the orders, now to
Lieutenant Leigh, now to this sergeant or that corporal; but at the
first offset of the defence of the old place, there was a dispute
between captain and lieutenant; and I'm afraid it was maintained by the
last out of obstinacy, and just at a time when there should have been
nothing but pulling together for the sake of all concerned. I must say,
though, that there was right on both sides.

Lieutenant Leigh put it forward as his opinion that short of men as we
were, it was folly to keep four enemies under the same roof, who were
like