would Sir Hugh Rose allow the siege operations to be for an instant relaxed with the other. Anxious to profit by the discouragement caused among the besieged and the fresh energy infused into the besiegers, the General resolved to strike at once. He gave his men no rest and they themselves did not expect it. Breach or no breach he determined that Jhánsí should be taken on the 3rd of April. And it was taken. For the men under his command, although well-nigh tired out, were no less confident and resolute.
The front and enfilading fire on the breach was so heavy that except from the fort the enemy made but little resistance at this point; but at the rocket battery on the left, which was taken by escalade, and also along the defence works on the left, likewise taken by escalade, they made a desperate resistance; first with artillery fire, rockets, stink-pots, &c., and then in a hand-to-hand fight with spears and swords.
Though the 3rd Europeans under Lieutenant-Colonel Liddell did their duty bravely, the attack by escalade on the right failed[1], on account of the short-
- ↑ Here there were several casualties. Amongst the killed were two gallant young officers, Lieutenants Meicklejohn and Dick, both of the Bombay Engineers. Lieutenant Meicklejohn, leading the storming party up the ladders, had reached the topmost rung, when he was wounded, dragged from the ladder by the Valaitis, and hacked to pieces on the wall, where his body was found by Colonel Louth's column. He had spent the previous night in making his will and writing to his mother, wife of the Presbyrerian clergyman at Hopetoun. In his letter he said that he felt certain he would be killed in the next day's storm, and that Sir Hugh Rose would do his best to obtain his vacancy for a younger brother.
