CHAPTER VI
THE FALL OF DELHI
Three months the British army lay upon the
Ridge running obliquely from the north-west
angle of Delhi—that abrupt height two miles
long, whose steep and broken front formed a
natural fortification, strengthened by batteries
and breast-works, among which the prominent
points were at a house known as Hindoo Rao's,
on the right of the position, and the Flagstaff
Tower on the left, commanding the road to the
Cashmere Gate of the city. The rear was protected
by a canal that had to be vigilantly
guarded, all the bridges broken down but one.
The right flank was defended by strong works
crowning that end of the ridge; the left rested
on the straggling sandy bed of the Jumna, over-*flooded
by summer rains. The whole army,
after the arrival of reinforcements in June,
numbered not six thousand fighting men, a
force barely sufficient to maintain such an
