Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/325

Rh to keep down the fire from the Kashmír bastion until the order for the delivering of the assault should be given.

The engineers worked with so much energy at these sections that, on the morning of the 8th, whilst still unfinished, and mounting but one gun, the enemy discovered Brind's section, and opened upon it a fire so concentrated and so incessant that to venture from its protection was to invite almost certain death. A little later the rebels tried to improve the opportunity by despatching a body of infantry and cavalry from the Láhor gate. This diversion really favoured the English. For, whilst it lasted, the men in the new battery worked with such a will that they succeeded in completing five platforms. As each platform was completed the gun mounted on it opened against the enemy. It is needless to add that the sortie, which had thus given badly-wanted time to the defenders, was beaten back with loss. The first section of No. 1 battery had no sooner been completed than its fire, well directed by the energetic Brind, rendered the Morí bastion harmless. Nor had the gallant Kaye done his work with less zeal. The fire directed from the left section had done good work against the Kashmír bastion, when, at noon of the 10th, the half-battery caught fire from the constant discharge of the guns. For a moment or two it seemed that the hard work of the three previous days would be thrown away, for the rebels at once directed on the burning battery every gun they could command.

But from such a catastrophe the battery was saved by the gallantry of Lieutenant Lockhart, on duty on the spot, with two companies of the 2d Gurkhás. As soon as he saw the fire, Lockhart, apprehending its fatal consequences, suggested to Kaye whether it might not be possible to save it by working from the outside, and on the top of the parapet. Kaye replied that something might be done if