cannonade, a large body of infantry, with ladders, made an assault on the Lahore gate. This was the real object of attack; but to divert the attention of the besieged, some guns were pointed against the Ajmeer gate, and a British officer was there mortally wounded. The attack on the Lahore gate, which the enemy confidently expected to carry, signally failed. The assailants were driven back in confusion, and with considerable loss, leaving behind them the ladders by which they were to have gained entrance.
This defeat seems to have completely dispirited the enemy. In the evening a show was made of drawing some guns towards the Cashmere gate, which subjected the garrison to the labour of making some preparations for defence there; but none were needed. The baffled foe retired in the night; and at daybreak all that was visible of the besiegers at Delhi was the rear-guard of their cavalry at a considerable distance. This successful defence was admirably calculated to dissipate the unfavourable impressions imparted by Colonel Monson's unfortunate retreat; and, as the Political Resident justly remarked, "it could not but reflect the greatest honour on the discipline, courage, and fortitude of British troops in the eyes of all Hindostan, to observe that, with so small a force, they sustained a siege of nine days, repelled an assault, and defended a city ten miles in circumference, and which had ever before been given up at the first appearance of an enemy at its gates."
On receiving intelligence of the danger of Delhi, Lord Lake hastened to that capital, which he reached on the 17th of October. Learning there that Holkar, with his cavalry, had begun a course of devastation along the Dooab, he set out in pursuit of him, with the whole of the European Dragoons, three regiments of native cavalry, the horse artillery, and the reserve of the army, consisting of two companies of European and three battalions of native infantry. He sent the mass of his infantry at the same time, under General Frazer, to
