Page:In times of peril.djvu/282

 A similar experience had befallen the third column, which had, guided by Sir T. Metcalfe, who knew the city intimately, endeavored to make a circuit so as to reach and carry the Jumma Musjid, the great mosque which dominated the city. So desperate was the resistance experienced that this column had also to fall back to the ramparts. The reserve column had followed the third in at the Cashmere gate, and had, after some fighting, possessed itself of some strong buildings in that neighborhood, most important of which was a large and commanding house, the residence of Achmed Ali Khan; and when the third column fell back, Skinner's house, the church, the magazine, and the main guard were held, and guns were planted to command the streets leading thereto. One cause of the slight advance made that day was that the enemy, knowing the weakness of the British soldier, had stored immense quantities of champagne and other wines, beer and spirits, in the streets next to the ramparts, and the troops—British, Sikhs, Beloochees and Ghoorkas alike—parched with thirst, and excited by the sight of these long-untasted luxuries, fell into the snare, and drank so deeply that the fighting power of the force was for awhile very seriously impaired.

On the 15th the stubborn fighting recommenced. From house to house our troops fought their way; frequently, when the street was so swept by fire that it was impossible to progress there, making their way by breaking down the party walls, and so working from one house into another. During this day guns and mortars were brought into the city from our batteries, and placed so as to shell the palace and the great building called the Selimgur.

The next morning the Sixty-first Regiment and the fourth Punjab Rifles made a rush at the great