Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/225

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He smashes the Rebel Left.
197

genius. And certainly, on that 16th of July, Havelock amply vindicated his claim to that title.

The time which had elapsed since the enemy caught sight of Havelock's turning movement and his completion of it, short as it was, had yet been sufficiently long to enable them to change their alignment, and to bring their guns to bear in the new direction. They had no longer, however, the exact knowledge of the distance, which they had hoped to utilise in the first position. But as Havelock advanced their superiority in weight of metal became perceptible, and Havelock recognised that there was nothing for it but the bayonet. When within eighty yards of the rebel batteries, then, he gave the order to charge. Like an eager pack of hounds racing to the kill the Highlanders dashed forward. In a few seconds they were over the mound covering the rebel position and into the village which they had held. They did not fire a shot or utter a shout, so fierce was their anger; but they did the work with the bayonet. It need scarcely be added that the slaughter was proportionate. But the great gun in the enemy's centre was now turned against the victorious soldiers. Havelock, noticing this, galloped up to the Highlanders, and with a few cheery words incited them to make one more charge. Then, indeed, they cheered, and scarcely waiting to make a regular formation, dashed on against the gun, led by the General in person. They carried it, completely smashing the rebel centre as they had smashed his left. Then they halted, impatient to direct their prowess in a new direction.

Nor had success been less pronounced on the right. There the 64th and the 84th, the Sikhs and Barrow's handful of volunteers, had forced back the rebels, and compelled them to concentrate in a village about a mile in the rear of their first position. To drive them from