Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/152

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
126
Barnard seizes the Ridge.

tions against the city, a position open in the rear to the reinforcements which he hoped to receive, whilst commanding the plain right up to the walls. What was, perhaps, of scarcely less importance, he had distinctly announced to the rebels throughout India, avowed and concealed, the plain issue between themselves and the British. From this time forth there was no possibility of doubt. The fate of Dehlí would decide the fate of India.

Barnard had not accomplished his end without loss. The killed and wounded amounted to 137. Amongst the former was the Adjutant-General of the army, Colonel Chester, shot down at the commencement of the action. His death was a loss to the gallant soldier, who, fresh from his service in the Crimea, had, without much Indian experience, assumed the command of the besieging army at a moment's notice.

The day following the Corps of Guides, a regiment composed of cavalry and infantry, stationed normally at Hotí-Mardan, on the Panjáb frontier, arrived in camp, led by its commandant, Colonel Henry Daly. Soon after its arrival it was despatched to the front to drive back parties of horse and foot which had sallied from Dehlí to attack the advanced posts of the British. In the engagement which followed the Guides carried all before them. They had, however, the misfortune to lose their acting second-in-command, Lieutenant Quintin Battye, an officer of great promise and of far-reaching popularity. Mortally wounded by a bullet through the body, he murmured to the chaplain who tended him, and who had warned him that but a very brief span of life yet remained to him: 'Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori.' A few minutes later he died.

Leaving the besiegers on the ridge they had so gallantly won, I propose, before returning to Calcutta, to take a