Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/425

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Sir Hugh defeats Tántiá.
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up on the centre, and then sent his infantry to charge it. These three blows, delivered with the most perfect precision, so surprised the rebels that their first line broke and fled. There still remained the second line, covered by a belt of jungle, and led by Tántiá in person. Recognising his danger, and anxious to save his second line and guns, Tántiá fired the jungle and retreated. The men with him were the men of the Gwáliár contingent, and these, drilled in olden days by British officers, were true to the teaching they had received. So orderly and well-conducted was their retreat that they succeeded in carrying their guns and some of the fugitives of the first line across the Betwá. But the British cavalry and horse-artillery, splendidly led, were not to be baffled. Dashing at a gallop through the burning jungle, they followed Tántiá for several miles, nor did they cease until they had captured every one of his twenty-eight guns.

The garrison at Jhánsí was proportionately depressed by the failure of Tántiá Topí to relieve them, and Sir Hugh resolved to take advantage of their depression to storm at the earliest possible date. This was the second day after his victory over Tántiá. At three o'clock in the morning of the 3d of April the stormers marched on the positions assigned to them. The left attack, divided into two columns, the left led by Colonel Lowth, the right by Major Stuart, both of the 86th, and having in its ranks Brockman, Darby, and Jerome of the same regiment, succeeded, after a desperate fight, in storming the wall and seizing the positions assigned to them. The right attack, the right column of which was led by Colonel Liddell, the left by Captain Robinson, both of the 2d Europeans, had tremendous difficulties to overcome. The rampart they had to escalade was very high, and their scaling ladders were too short. Thanks, however, to the splendid gallantry