[Footnote 4:  Now Lieutenant-General Sir John McQueen, K.C.B.]

[Footnote 5:  The Gurkhas became such friends with the men of the 1st Battalion 60th Rifles during the siege—­the admiration of brave men for brave men—­that they made a special request to be allowed to wear the same uniform as their ‘brothers’ in the Rifles.  This was acceded to, and the 2nd Gurkhas are very proud of the little red line on their facings.]

[Footnote 6:  Amongst the Native officers killed was Subadar Ruttun Sing, who fell mortally wounded in the glacis.  He was a Patiala Sikh, and had been invalided from the service.  As the 1st Punjab Infantry neared Delhi, Major Coke saw the old man standing in the road with two swords on.  He begged to be taken back into the service, and when Coke demurred he said:  ’What! my old corps going to fight at Delhi without me!  I hope you will let me lead my old Sikh company into action again.  I will break these two swords in your cause.’  Coke acceded to the old man’s wish, and throughout the siege of Delhi he displayed the most splendid courage.  At the great attack on the ‘Sammy House’ on the 1st and 2nd August, when Lieutenant Travers of his regiment was killed, Ruttun Sing, amidst a shower of bullets, jumped on to the parapet and shouted to the enemy, who were storming the piquet:  ’If any man wants to fight, let him come here, and not stand firing like a coward!  I am Ruttun Sing, of Patiala.’  He then sprang down among the enemy, followed by the men of his company, and drove them off with heavy loss.

On the morning of the assault the regiment had marched down to the rendezvous at Ludlow Castle, ‘left in front.’  While waiting for the Artillery to fire a few final rounds at the breaches, the men sat down, and, falling in again, were doing so ‘right in front.’  Ruttun Sing came up to Lieutenant Charles Nicholson, who was commanding the regiment, and said:  ’We ought to fall in “left in front,” thereby making his own company the leading one in the assault.  In a few minutes more Ruttun Sing was mortally wounded, and Dal Sing, the Jemadar of his company, a man of as great courage as Ruttun Sing, but not of the same excitable nature, was killed outright.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XX. 1857

Necessity for further action—­Departure from Delhi —­Action at Bulandshahr—­Lieutenant Home’s death—­Knights-errant —­Fight at Aligarh—­Appeals from Agra —­Collapse of the administration—­Taken by surprise —­The fight at Agra—­An exciting chase—­The Taj Mahal