Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/397

Rh pierced his heart, and he fell; thus terminating a career which had been marked by a courage of the most heroic character, and by services that received from the public authorities the honours they so well deserved.

All hopes of success for the present were at once abandoned, and the arrival of another division only served to cover the retreat of the former. Colonel Mawbey, of the 53rd, however, on succeeding to the command, felt deeply the importance of not allowing this first great military operation to prove abortive; but he was obliged to delay his meditated attack till a battering-train was procured from Delhi. Three days after, a breach was effected, and an assault commenced under the command of Major Ingleby; but this was not more fortunate than the preceding ones. The enemy defended the place with desperate valour, and, after a contest of two hours, Colonel Mawbey withdrew his troops, with severe loss. The storming-party had succeeded in gaining the top of the breach, when a momentary hesitation proved fatal to them, and a large proportion was swept away. This failure was ascribed by Colonel Mawbey partly to the bold resistance of the enemy, and partly to the difficulties of the service which the British troops were called upon to perform; the descent from the top of the breach having been so deep and rapid that the most daring of the assailants would not venture to leap down, especially as a number of pointed stakes and bamboos fixed at the bottom threatened them with certain death if they had done so.

The batteries, however, continued to play till the walls were reduced almost to a heap of ruins, and the natives then evacuated a place which they had so gallantly defended, on the morning of the 30th of November, when it was immediately taken possession of by Colonel Mawbey. The scene within the fort was of the most appalling description, and bore ample testimony to the desperate spirit which had animated its defenders. Their fortune without the walls was not happier than it had