Lieutenant Willoughby subsequently died of his injuries ; the remaining three succeeded in making their escape. The occupation of Delhi by the rebels was the signal for risings in almost every military station in North-Western India. The revolted soldiery with one accord thronged towards Delhi, and in a short time the city was garrisoned j by a rebel army variously estimated at from 50,000 to 70,000 disciplined men. The pensioned king, Bahadur Shah, was proclaimed emperor ; his sons were appointed to various military commands. About fifty Europeans and Eurasians, nearly all females, who had been captured in trying to escape from the town on the day of the outbreak, were confined in a stifling chamber of the palace for fifteen days ; they were then brought out and massacred in the court-yard. The siege which followed forms one of the memorable incidents of the British history of India. On the 8th June, four weeks after the outbreak, Sir II. Barnard, who had succeeded as commander-in-chief on the death of General Anson, routed the mutineers with a handful of Europeans and Sikhs, after a severe action at Badli-ka-Sardi, and encamped upon the ridge that overlooks the city. The force was too weak to capture the city, and he had no siege train or heavy guns. All that could be done was to hold the position till the arrival of reinforcements and of a siege train. During the next three months the little British force on the ridge were rather the besieged than the besiegers. Almost daily sallies, which often turned into pitched battles, were made by the rebels upon the over-worked handful of Europeans, Sikhs, and Gurkhas. A great struggle took place on the centenary of the battle of Plassey, June 23, and another on the 25th August ; but on both occasions the mutineers were repulsed with heavy loss. General Barnard died of cholera in July, and was succeeded by General Archdale Wilson. Meanwhile reinforcements and siege artillery gradually arrived, and early in Septem ber it was resolved to make the assault. The first of the heavy batteries opened fire on the 8th September, and on the 13th a practicable breach was reported. On the morn ing of the 14th the assault was delivered, the points of attack being the Kashmir bastion, the water bastion, the Kashmir gate, and the Lahore gate. The assault was thoroughly successful, although the column which was to enter the city by the Lahore gate sustained a temporary check. - The whole eastern part of the city was retaken, but at a loss of 66 officers and 110-1 men killed or wounded, out or the total strength of 9866. Fighting continued more or less during the next six days, and it was not till the 20th September that the entire city and palace were occupied, and the reconquest of Delhi was complete. Dur ing the siege, the British force sustained a loss of 1012 officers and men killed, and 3837 wounded. Among the killed was General John Nicholson, the leader of one of the storming parties, who was shot through the body in the act of leading his men, in the first day s fighting. He lived, however, to learn that the whole city had been recap tured, and died on the 23d September. On the flight of the mutineers, the king and several members of the royal family took refuge at Humayun s tomb. On receiv ing a promise that his life would be spared, the last of the house of Timur surrendered to Major Hodson ; he was afterwards banished to Rangoon. Delhi, thus recon quered, remained for some months under military autho rity. Owing to the murder of several European soldiers who strayed from the lines, the native population was expelled the city. Hindus were soon afterwards re-ad mitted, but for some time Mahometans were rigorously excluded. Delhi was made over to the civil authorities in January 1858, but it was not till 1861 that the civil courts were regularly reopened. The shattered walls of the Kashmir gateway, and the bastions of the northern face of the city, still bear the marks of the cannonade of September 1857. Since that date, Delhi has settled down into a prosperous commercial town, and a great railway centre. The lines which start from it to the north, south, east, and west bring into its bazaars the trade of many dis tricts. But the romance of antiquity still lingers around it, and Delhi was selected for the scene of the Imperial Proclamation on the 1st January 1877. An excellent chapter on Delhi will be found in Mr Keene s Fall of the Mocjhul Empire. In preparing the above account, the materials have been chiefly drawn from the official Statistical Account of Delhi District, together with Sir J. W. Kaye s History
of the Sepoy War.
DELIA, a festival of Apollo held in Delos. It included
athletic and musical contests, for which the prize was a
branch of the sacred palm. This festival was said to have
been established by Theseus when returning from. Crete.
The Athenians took special interest in maintaining its
splendour.
DELILLE, Jacques (1738-1813), a French poet, was
born on the 22cl of June 1738, at Aigues-Perse in
Auvergrie. He was an illegitimate child, and was connected
by his mother with the family of the Chancellor de
1 Hopital. With very slender means of support he was
educated at the college of Lisieux in Paris, and made such
progress in his studies as augured well for his future dis
tinction. When his education was completed, he was
forced to accept of a very humble situation as elementary
teacher in the college of Beauvais ; but this was soon
exchanged for the more honourable station of professor of
humanity at Amiens. After returning to Paris, where he
obtained a professorship at the College de la Marche, he
speedily acquired a considerable poetical fame, which was
greatly increased by the publication (1769) of his transla
tion of the Georgics of Virgil, which he had begun at
Amiens. Voltaire was greatly struck with the enterprise
and the success of Delille ; and without any personal
acquaintance with the poet he, of his own accord, recom
mended him and his work to the good graces of the
Academy. He was at once elected a member, but was not
admitted until 1774 owing to the opposition of Richelieu,
who alleged that he was too young. He now aimed at. a
higher distinction than even a finished translation of the
most finished poem in the world could confer upon him ;
and in the Jardins, which he published in 1782, he made
good his pretensions as an original poet. Before he had
gone far in the composition of his next poem, which was
not, indeed, published till after many of his other works,
he made a journey to Constantinople in the train of the
ambassador M. de Choiseul Gouffier. On his return to
Paris he lectured, in his capacity of professor, on the Latin
poets, and was attended by a numerous audience, who were
delighted, not only with his critical observations, but with
his beautiful recitation. Delille continued to advance in
fame and fortune, though without hazarding any more
publications, till the period of the Revolution, when he was
reduced to poverty, and sheltered himself in retreat from
the disasters which surrounded him. He quitted Paris,
and retired to St Did, the native place of Madame Delille ;
and here he completed, in deep solitude, his translation of
the JEneid, which he had begun many years before. A
residence in France, however, soon became very undesir
able, and he emigrated first to Basle and then to Glairesse
in Switzerland, a charming village on the Lake of Bienne,
opposite Rousseau s island of St Pierre. Much delighted
with this enchanting country, and with the reception which
be met from its inhabitants, he occupied himself constantly
in the composition of poetry, and here finished his Hornme
des Champs, and his poem on the Trois JKegnes de la
