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THE SOOTHING INFLUENCE OF PRAYER.
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was thought that by the end of August there must have been as many as one hundred thousand men around the Residency. Their leaders were maddened by the continued and successful resistance of the English; and all that they could do to inspire their men, by fanaticism, bhang, (an intoxicating liquor,) and brave leading, were done to capture the position. They attempted to storm it several times. Three of these occasions are specially memorable; and it is perfectly amazing to read the stern, unconquerable resistance with which this handful of heroic men, behind their intrenchments, met and dashed back again that raging tide of fierce and blaspheming assailants. They would begin by exploding the mines which they had driven close up to or under the defenses, open with a fearful cannonade, and then swarm up to the breaches made. On July 20th the fight lasted from 9 A. M. to 4 P. M., with the broiling sun up to 140 degrees. At what cost these repulses must have been received may be understood by the fact, that the native report of the attempt to storm on the 10th of August admits a loss on their side of four hundred and seventy men killed and wounded on that day alone.

Lady Inglis, wife of the Commander, in her journal of this terrible day, while the poor ladies down in the Tyekhana trembled for the result, refers to the soothing influence of prayer, as she tried it there with that excited and terrified crowd of women. The effect, she says, was amazing; each of them seemed to rise above herself, and with calmness and true courage they awaited the result, realizing that, though the enemy was near, God himself was nearer still, and could preserve them. And he did preserve them.

It is described as one of the most affecting sights that ever was witnessed in a scene of battle to see how the wounded men acted on that day. Knowing the danger, and how their comrades were pressed, they insisted on leaving their beds in the hospital and being helped to the front. The poor fellows came staggering along to the scene of action, trembling with weakness and pale as death, some of them bleeding from their wounds, which reopened by the exertions they made. Those whose limbs were injured laid aside