energies--nay, his very life--to meet the crisis. None but those who
were there can for one moment realize through what suffering and
hardship the troops passed during the three months the Siege of Delhi
lasted. Day after day, under a burning sun or through the deadly time of
the rainy season, with pestilence in their midst, distressing accounts
from all parts of the country, and no hope of relief save through their
own unaided exertions, the soldiers of the army before Delhi fought with
a courage and constancy which no difficulties could daunt and no trials,
however severe, could overcome. In the end these men, worn out by
exposure and diminished in numbers, stormed a strong fortified city
defended by a vastly superior force, and for six days carried on a
constant fight in the streets, till the enemy were driven out of their
stronghold and Delhi was won. It must also be remembered that the
feat was accomplished without the help of a single soldier from home;
reinforcements had arrived in the country, but they were hundreds of
miles distant when the news reached them of the capture of Delhi: and it
is not too much to say that the success which followed the subsequent
operations down-country was due mainly to the fact that all danger from
the north-west had virtually ceased, and the mutiny had already received
a crushing blow from the capture of the great city of rebellion.

[Footnote 1: Lieutenant Boileau, 61st Regiment, served in the batteries
till the end of the siege.]

[Footnote 2: Are not the names of the Engineers Home and Salkeld and of
Bugler Hawthorne (H.M. 52nd Regiment) household words?]

[Footnote 3: Captain Deacon and Lieutenants Moore and Young were wounded
in this engagement.]

[Footnote 4: Colonel Deacon, Her Majesty's 61st Regiment, commanded on
this occasion.]

CHAPTER V

OCCUPATION OF THE CITY

The renown won by our troops in 1857 is now wellnigh forgotten, and,
in fact, their deeds in that distant quarter of our Empire faded into
oblivion within a very short period subsequent to the capture of Delhi.
When the regiments engaged at that place came home to England after a
long course of service in India, scarcely any notice was taken of their
arrival. There were no marchings past before Her Majesty at Windsor or
elsewhere, no public distribution of medals and rewards, no banquets
given to the leading officers of the force, and no record published
of the arduous duties in which they had b