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 they pulled the trigger. This was to guard the eyes against splinters from the flint. A man who did not take the precaution might escape, but the chances were that some time or other he would be struck by a splinter; if it touched the ball of the eye it meant blindness. Long after the Enfields were in use, the old soldiers, who were accustomed to the Brown Bess, shut their eyes from habit and spoilt the accuracy of their shooting.

In the Mutiny the sepoys were not long in discovering the advantage of the Enfield rifles, and they made use of them in their rebellion. There were great quantities lying in store with ammunition at Delhi and other places, and they adopted them and the cartridge, which had offended their caste sensibilities, without any scruple whatever. At first the Enfield cartridge was not a success. The end of it had a plate of iron which was frequently blown with the bullet out of the rifle, leaving the shell which jammed the weapon. Men whose rifles were jammed were as good as disarmed until they could meet a sergeant who had the necessary tweezers with him to extract the shell.

During the campaign Neill was superseded by Havelock. It was curious to hear the different opinions held by Gibbs and another old pensioner from the same regiment named Hart. Hart would have preferred Neill at their head, and would have followed him with confidence wherever he chose to lead. Gibbs preferred the more careful Havelock. When they entered Cawnpore, the day after the massacre, even Havelock was filled with a just wrath, and was roused out of his customary self-control by the awful sight which met his eye. Gibbs said he saw him wave his hat to the men as he cried out to them to pursue the enemy without sparing a single black skin.

Nana Sahib retreated before the regiment came up,