omen were borne to the
ground in an instant, while a couple of wretches made a dash at those
two children--Little Cock Robin and Jenny Wren, as we called them--
standing there, wondering like, by Harry Lant's bed on the floor, whilst
the golden light of the setting sun filled the room, and lit up their
little angels' faces.

But with a howl, such as I never heard woman give, Mrs Bantem rushed
between them and the children, caught a bayonet in each hand, and held
them together, letting them pass under one arm, then with a spring
forward she threw those great arms of hers round the black fellows'
necks as they hung together, and held them in such a hug as they never
suffered from before.

The next moment they were all rolling together on the floor; but that
incident saved the lives of those poor children, for there came a cheer
now, and Measles and a dozen more were led in by Lieutenant Leigh, and--

There, I am telling you too many horrors. They beat them back step by
step, at the point of the bayonet; and a fierce struggle it was, a long
fight kept up from room to room, for our men were fierce now as the
mutineers, and it was a genuine death-struggle; and the broken window
being guarded, not a man of about a dozen mutineers who gained entrance
lived to go back and relate their want of success.

And can you wonder, when two of those who fought had found their wives
bayoneted Grainger was one of them and when the fight was over, during
which, raging like a demon, he had bayoneted four men, the poor fellow
sat down by his dead wife, took her head first in his lap, then to his
breast, and rocked himself to and fro, crying like a child, till there
was a bugle-call in the court-yard, when he laid her gently in a corner,
carrying her like as if she had been a child, kneeled down, and said
`Our Father' right through by her side, kissed her lips two or three
times, and then covered her face with a bit of an old red handkerchief;
and him all the while covered with blood and dust and black of powder.
Then, poor fellow, he got up and took his gun, and went out on the tips
of his toes, lest he should wake her who would wake no more in this
world.

Perhaps it was weakness, I don't know, but my eyes were very wet just
then, and a soft little hand was laid on my breast, and Lizzy's head
leant over me, and her tears, too, fell very fast on my hot and fevered
face.

I felt that I should die, not then, perhaps, but before very lon