Page:Decisive Battles Since Waterloo.djvu/206

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172
DECISIVE BATTLES SINCE WATERLOO.

daylight until two in the afternoon, when Sir Colin ordered Hope's Brigade, supported by the Fifty-third and Nintieth Regiments, to advance against the Martinière. Aided by Outram's enfilading batteries, they carried it without opposition, the rebels fleeing over the river, but taking their guns along with them. Both lines of operation were successful, Outram being fairly established on one side of the parallelogram, and thus enabling Sir Colin to advance on its other side.

The next movement was on the 10th, when the two sides of the parallelogram were practically completed by the storming and capture of Banks' House. The next move was to pierce the centre of the rebel line, which extended from Banks' House to a point on the Kaiser Bagh. Outram was ordered to assail the positions which covered the iron and masonry bridges. The iron bridge led to the Residency and the masonry one to the Machi Bawan. The same plan was followed as in the capture of the Martinière and the Dilkusha. Batteries were established to enfilade the enemy's works, and at the same time throw a vertical and direct fire upon the Kaiser Bagh. On the 11th, General Outram advanced General Walpole's division to a position which commanded the iron bridge. Pushing through the suburbs, he occupied the Mosque, about a thousand yards from the bridge, and there he left the First Fusiliers. From the Mosque he went on to the head of the stone bridge, but found the position untenable with infantry, as it was commanded by the rebel guns, and therefore he withdrew again to the Mosque. In the meanwhile, a battery had been established close to the iron bridge.

While these movements were taking place on the right, the heavy batteries on the left had opened a fire of shot and shell on the Bakum Kothi. The line of palaces known by that name were very strongly built, and if well garrisoned and properly defended they were capable of