DAILY STATE
   OF
   H.M.’S 75TH REGIMENT

  Camp Delhi, 13th September, 1857.

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|                    |   Sergeants. |  Drummers. | Rank and File. |
+--------------------+--------------+------------+----------

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| Fit to turn out    |       1      |     5      |       37       |
| On duty            |      29      |     6      |      361       |
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  (Sd.) E. COURTENAY,
  Sergt.-Major,
  75th Regt.

  True copy,
  (Sd.) R. BARTER, Lieut.-Adj.,
  75th Regiment.]

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CHAPTER XVIII. 1857

Delhi stormed—­The scene at the Kashmir Gate —­Bold front by Artillery and Cavalry—­Nicholson wounded —­The last I saw of Nicholson—­Wilson wavers—­ Holding on to the walls of Delhi

It was intended, as I have before said, that the assault should be delivered at break of day, but many of the men belonging to the regiments of the storming force had been on piquet all night, and it took some time for them to rejoin their respective corps.  A further delay was caused by our having to destroy the partial repairs to the breaches which the enemy had succeeded in effecting during the night, notwithstanding the steady fire we had kept up.

While we were thus engaged, the Infantry were ordered to lie down under cover.  Standing on the crenellated wall which separated Ludlow Castle from the road, I saw Nicholson at the head of his column, and wondered what was passing through his mind.  Was he thinking of the future, or of the wonderful part he had played during the past four months?  At Peshawar he had been Edwardes’s right hand.  At the head of the Movable Column he had been mainly instrumental in keeping the Punjab quiet, and at Delhi everyone felt that during the short time he had been with us he was our guiding star, and that but for his presence in the camp the assault which he was about to lead would probably never have come off.  He was truly ‘a tower of strength.’  Any feeling of reluctance to serve under a Captain of the Company’s army, which had at first been felt by some, had been completely overcome by his wonderful personality.  Each man in the force, from the General in command to the last-joined private soldier, recognized that the man whom the wild people on the frontier had deified—­the man of whom a little time before Edwardes had said to Lord Canning, ’You may rely upon this, that if ever there is a desperate deed to be done in India, John Nicholson is the man to do it’—­was one who had proved himself beyond all doubt capable of grappling with the crisis through which we were passing—­one to follow to the death.  Faith in the Commander who had claimed and been given the post of honour was unbounded, and every man was prepared ‘to do or die’ for him.