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122 the same cool judgment which he had shown at Chandari. The regiment carried the breach with little loss, and bringing their shoulders forward, swept round in rear of the wall, which in most instances caused the precipitate retreat of its defenders.'

The General himself, entering the breach with the troops, moved on with some companies of the 86th Regiment to take the palace. Hurrying across a large open space under fire from the fort — a fire which it was impossible to return — they fought their way through the streets to the palace gates. An entrance was soon forced, and then the conflict waxed fiercer than ever. Driven from room to room, the enemy defended themselves with the fury of despair, setting light to trains of powder on the floor, and even to the ammunition in their pouches.

The right and left attacking parties were now concentrated in the palace. The next thing to be done was to clear the city of the numerous armed rebels, who remained in the houses and were firing on the troops. Part of this task was accomplished that same day, April 3rd, not without many desperate hand-to-hand combats. In particular there was a terrible fight in the palace stables, between some men of Her Majesty's 86th Regiment; and thirty or forty Valaiti troopers of the Rání's bodyguard. The 86th Regiment here captured over thirty standards and an English Union Jack, which had been given by Lord William Bentinck to a former ruler of Jhánsí,