Meerut—a long reach of the road could be seen from it. There Willoughby took his position. Conductor Scully had volunteered to fire the train, should the last emergency come. There he stood, with his lighted port-fire in his hand, watching every movement of his chief. Seeing all was lost, and chafing with impatience, in presence of the raging foes around upon the walls, he would now and then cry out, “Shall I fire her, sir?” But the Lieutenant, who still hoped for the sight of help from Meerut, would reply, “Not yet, Scully—not yet.” The despairing but brave man would again look along the road and sigh, while Scully watched for the signal.
Lieutenant Forrest, with the other six men, worked the guns. The gallant little band never once thought of betraying their trust by capitulation. The escalade from without was the signal for a similar movement from the traitorous natives within. In the confusion they managed to hide the priming pouches; they then deserted the Europeans, climbing up the sloped sheds on the inside of the magazine, and descending by the ladders without. The insurgents had by this time swelled into multitudes upon the walls, pouring a deadly musketry discharge upon them at less than fifty yards, but the brave besieged kept up an incessant fire of grape, which told well. At length Conductor Buckley—who had been loading and firing with the same steadiness as if on parade—received a ball in his arm; and Lieutenant Forrest was at the same time struck by two balls. Further defense was hopeless. No help from Meerut. Lieutenant Willoughby saw that the supreme moment had arrived. He lifted his hat, which was the signal, and Conductor Scully instantly fired the trains, and with an explosion that shook all Delhi, up went the magazine into the air, and its vast resources were annihilated. From five hundred to one thousand Sepoys on the walls were killed, and every thing around destroyed. Willoughby, Forrest, and Buckley, though wounded, actually escaped death, and managed to crawl from beneath the smoking ruins under cover of night, and retreated through the sally-port on the river-face, and Forrest and Buckley lived to tell the story of their
