Page:The Siege of London - Posteritas - 1885.djvu/67

 was connected by electric wires with the town, and as the French approached and were passing over that part of the road the mine was fired. The effect was appallingly awful, and the air was filled with the mangled remains of men and horses, while hundreds of soldiers far in the rear were wounded and killed by the large stones from the mine falling upon them. This unexpected catastrophe brought the invaders to a halt, and the commander ordered his men to encamp in some fields, having first succoured the many wounded and comforted the dying. Outposts were stationed round the camp, and sentries were doubled everywhere. After nightfall had set in, the harassed and weary soldiers were startled at seeing lurid lights approaching the camp, while the rattle of wheels and the thundering of horses' hoofs filled the air. Then from various quarters maddened horses tore into the camp dragging after them carts filled with barrels of blazing petroleum and methylated spirits. The wretched animals had been first headed for the enemy's camp and then saturated with the blazing liquid, and allowed to go on their agonising and fiery way. Many of these carts were capsized and the spirit ran along in blazing rivers. Some of the tents were set on fire, and men were fearfully burned, while the air was rendered suffocating by the dense volumes of black smoke that rolled across the face of the sky like a funeral pall.

This bold and original mode of carrying on warfare cost the French many lives both in officers and private soldiers, while the cavalry and artillery horses, taking fright at the smoke and the flaming carts, broke into a stampede, and added to the general horror and confusion, so that the camp was for a time completely disorganised.

When the morning broke on this fearful scene of suffering and death, the Commander-in-Chief sent forward a strong column to summon the town to surrender. He had determined on holding this place in force as being an important strategical position owing to its proximity to Manchester, Liverpool, and other large towns. Derby, however, was not disposed to surrender without a struggle, and her gallant people returned for answer to the summons a volley of grape and canister, discharged from a battery of volunteer artillerymen. The French, therefore, had no