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Rh the engineers' work was completed. All the great buildings to the left, up to the little Imámbárah, had been sapped through, and by nine o'clock the next morning the heavy guns had effected a breach in its walls. Franks was then directed to storm it. He carried out the operation with brilliant success.

The storm of the little Imámbárah had whetted the martial instincts of the men. Following up the rebels as they evacuated it, they forced their way into a palace which commanded three of the bastions of the Kaisarbágh. Thence they brought to bear on the rebels below them so heavy a fire that one by one they deserted their guns. Their flight left the second line of defence virtually at the mercy of the British. It was turned. A daring advance alone was necessary to gain it. The rebels, recognising this, had no thought but to save themselves. They ran then for security into the buildings between the little Imámbárah and the Kaisarbágh. But the 90th and Brasyer's Sikhs, who were in the front line of stormers, had equally recognised the advantages of their position. Led by young Havelock and Brasyer, they forced their way, cheering, under a terrible fire, into a courtyard adjoining the Kaisarbágh, driving the rebels before them. At this conjuncture young Havelock, seeing with a soldier's eye the extent of the possibilities before him, ran back to the detachment of the 10th in support and ordered it to the front. Annesley, who commanded it, led it forward with alacrity, nor did his men halt till, driving the rebels before them, they had penetrated to the Chíní bazaar, to the rear of the Tárá Kothí and the mess-house, thus turning the rebels' third line. The rebels, congregated in the Tárá Kothí and mess-house, numbering about 6000, realising their position, evacuated those buildings, and made as though they would re-enter the city through an opening in the further