“I agree with you, Mallett.  It is evident that we shall be passing through an open suburb rather than the town itself.  Those big buildings, if held in force, will give us a good deal of trouble.  They are regular fortresses.”

“I don’t think that any of them are built of stone.  They all seem to be whitewashed.”

“That is so,” the Major agreed, as he examined them through his field glass.  “I suppose stone is scarce in this neighbourhood, but it is probable that the walls are of brickwork, and very thick.  They will have to be regularly breached before we can carry them.

“It makes one sad to think that that flag, which has waved over the Residency for the last five months, defying all the efforts of enormously superior numbers, is to come down, and that these scoundrels will be able to exult in the possession of the place that has defied all their efforts to take it.  Still one feels that Sir Cohn’s decision is a necessary one.  It would never do to have six or seven thousand men shut up there, when there is urgent work to be done in a score of other places.  Besides, it would need a vast magazine of provisions to maintain them.  Our force, even when joined by the garrison, would be wholly inadequate for so tremendous a task as reducing to submission a city containing at least half-a-million inhabitants, together with thirty or forty thousand mutineers and a host of Oude’s best men, with the advantage of the possession of a score or two of buildings, all of which are positive fortresses.”

“No, there is nothing for it but to fall back again till we have a force sufficient to capture the whole city, and utterly defeat its defenders.  With us away, this place will become the focus of the mutiny.  Half the fugitives from Delhi will find their way here, and at least we shall be able to crush them at one blow, instead of having to scour the country for them for months.  The more of them gather here the better; and then, when we do capture the place, there will be an end of the mutiny, though, of course, there will still be the work of hunting down scattered bands.”

“We may look forward to very much harder work tomorrow than we have had today,” Captain Johnson said.  “With these glasses I can make out that the place is crowded with men.  Of course, today we took them somewhat by surprise, as they would naturally expect us to follow Havelock’s line.  But now that they know what our real intentions are, they will be able to mass their whole force to oppose us.”

“So much the better,” Frank Mallett said.  “There is no mistaking the feeling of the troops.  They are burning to avenge Cawnpore, and little mercy will be shown the rebels who fall into their hands.”

“I should advise any of you gentlemen who want to write home,” the Colonel said, gravely, “to do so this evening.  There is no doubt that we shall take those places, but I think that there is also no doubt that our death roll will be heavy.  You must not judge by their fighting today of the stand that they are likely to make tomorrow.  They know well enough that they will get no quarter after what has taken place, and will fight desperately to the end.”