amilies to their homes, with a promise that they should be
guarded to any part of the country, and their property guaranteed to
them. To these proposals, dictated by the feelings of humanity, which
our good general possessed in a most eminent degree, we received nothing
but contemptuous answers. Be the blood of their slaughtered relatives,
therefore, on their shoulders, not on ours! Wherever the troops of the
Company have been employed, humanity has always marked their steps; yet
I have only known one instance in my long service, in which the natives
consented to avail themselves of the kind offer made to them, that their
families should be protected. I shall have the pleasure of mentioning
this in its proper place.

It was currently reported, and there seemed to be some foundation for
such a report, that there were immense treasures in the fort. This was a
more shining prospect than we had contemplated. Nothing could be more
congenial to our minds than the chance of touching the coin. These
anticipations gladdened our very hearts, and kept us watchful and
vigilant. To say the truth, I do not know any class of people more
deserving of money, or who can spend it in a more gentlemanlike manner,
than soldiers. From our late gaieties at Cawnpore, and having danced my
marriage rounds through the whole station, my purse, at this critical
juncture, was in deep decline. It had undergone a most severe draining,
and its contents had dwindled away to a single silver piece. My account
with the paymaster had also made an oblique evolution, and settled on
the wrong side, leaving me no credit by the position it had taken. Since
this untoward account had taken that whim into its head, the paymaster
was never at home. A confounded bore this--always to find people out,
whom you particularly want to see, and have a little sterling confab
with. Thus stood the case, or rather, thus stood my purse, yawning for
lack of coin; and this was the case with many others. Was it a wonder,
then, that we so readily gave credit to the reports which were in
circulation touching the probability of our reaping a golden harvest by
this siege?

With these prospects in view, the siege went on with all possible
energy. Having viewed the gaping ditch, and assured ourselves of the
impossibility of both descent and ascent, we had pushed our mining
operations within thirty yards of the top of the glacis, and began to
descend into the bowels of the earth. I was th