wounded[1]. By courage and endurance the gallant little army had restored British supremacy in the very focus of the revolt, and so made the first real step, unaided by the presence or assistance of the Commander-in-Chief, towards the suppression of the Mutiny. To sum up the position of affairs briefly, it may be said that till the capture of Delhi the prestige of British supremacy was still trembling in the balance. Had the storming failed, all might have gone. It was a struggle feebly begun but nobly ended, and its record will ever find a foremost place in the history of the Mutiny.
The news of the fall of Delhi reached Calcutta on September 26th. Writing to General Wilson three days afterwards, the Commander-in-Chief said: — 'Pray accept my congratulations on your brilliant success. The determined character of the resistance you have encountered in the town is an unmistakable answer to the unprofessional authorities who would have tried to hurry you on to a rash attack before your military judgment was satisfied of the sufficiency of your means.'
From the moment that Delhi fell, Lucknow became the centre of interest to which all eyes were turned; more especially since, about this time, affairs to the southward were complicated by the revolt, as we have seen, on the 22nd of September of the famous
- ↑ The loss of the Delhi Field Force in killed, wounded, and missing, from May 30 to Sept. 20, 1857, amounted to 2151 Europeans and 1686 natives.
