-morrow."

Thus spoke Colonel Leoline, commanding the regiment in which young
Carlton was serving as a cornet.

This news, so pleasing to the ear of the soldiers, was received with the
utmost enthusiasm by every officer present. They gave three cheers for
their gallant leader, and another rouser for the service they belonged
to, which made the walls of their mess room ring again, so delighted
were they at the prospect of leaving their quiet, humdrum quarters for
the dash and excitement of the battle field.

The panorama which opened to the view on the mornings of the--was
glorious in the extreme, and one well calculated to awaken feelings of
emotion in the most obdurate breast. The dark waters of the Sutlej
glittering in the sun's rays as they flowed onward, all unconscious of
the bloody strife about to be enacted on its banks: the frowning
fortress, with its embattled walls bristling with cannon and swarming
with men, whose dusky figures beamed with hate and defiance; around the
outskirts of the town were the battalions of Seik soldiery, drawn up
under the Dewan Moolraj, watching with savage anxiety the approach of
the British force, whose regiments of cavalry that headed the advance
opened their glittering ranks to the right and left and made apparent
the serried battalions of infantry and the frowning batteries of cannon.

The scene was grandly magnificent. The eye included the whole field and
glanced approvingly from the steady order of one foe to the even array
of the other. All this spoke gladness of mind and strength of heart; but
beneath the elate looks of the advancing warriors there lurked that
fierce desire for the death of their fellow-men which must ever impel
the valiant soldier.

With the general details during the progress of the siege our story has
little to do,--suffice it to say that it was a bloody and protracted
affair. The Mooltanees fought with their usual desperate valor, but they
had to cope with men who never turned their backs upon a foe when the
fiat of battle had gone forth, who scorned to yield even when greatly
outnumbered, and regarded defeat, if not actually a crime, an
imperishable disgrace; and so the strife waged fast and furious up to
the closing hours of the conflict.

The siege and train heavy ordinance of the besieging force hurled their
ponderous shot and shell against the masonry and buildings that defended
the town and citadel, destroying, crushing, and burning with terri