foot. The two first he cut down; with the third the conflict was desperate. Hills had been shaken by his fall, and was encumbered by his cloak. Twice did his pistol miss fire. Then he missed a blow at his opponent's shoulder, and the latter wrested his sword from his tired hand. But Hills was equal to the occasion. Closing with his enemy, he smote him several times with his clenched fist in the face until he fell. Just at the moment Tombs, who had found his way through the enemy, seeing Hills's danger, shot the trooper dead. It was a splendid pistol shot, fired at a distance of thirty paces. To reach that point Tombs had cut his way through the enemy, whose advance Hills had checked, but not completely stopped. The danger to them was not over then. It required the sacrifice of another native trooper to insure perfect safety. But this was only accomplished at the cost to Hills of a sword-cut, which clave his skull to the brain.[1]
By this time the whole British camp was roused, and after a while the rebel troopers were driven back towards Dehlí. A fierce battle had been going on, meanwhile, in the Sabzímandí. This likewise ended in the repulse of the rebels, but not until 233 men had been killed or wounded on the British side.
Five days later there was another hard-fought encounter. This time the rebels attacked Hindu Ráo's house. After a battle which lasted from eight o'clock in the morning till close upon sunset, Neville Chamberlain, with the 75th, Coke's Rifles (Panjábís), and Hodson's Horse, drove back the rebels to the gates of Dehlí. But again was the loss severe, amounting to seventeen men killed and 193 wounded, of whom sixteen were officers,
- ↑ The wound was not mortal. Hills recovered to render splendid service to his country in India, in China, in Abyssinia, in Afghanistan. He is now Sir James Hills-Johns.
