band of forty men were called away from the loopholes, and were drawn up
behind the ditch; and as the head of the assaulting crowd neared the gate
volley after volley rang out, and swept away the leaders, foremost among
whom were a number of Sepoys, who, when their regiments mutinied, had
returned to their homes, and now headed the peasantry in their attack upon
the British force. When the dense mass arrived within thirty yards of the
gate Major Warrener gave the word, and a retreat was made behind the
breastwork. On, with wild shouts, came the assailants; the first few saw
the trench, and leaped it; those who followed fell in, until the trench
was full; then the crowd swept in unchecked. The defenders had laid by
their carbines now, and had drawn their revolvers. They were divided into
two lines, who were alternately to take places in front and fire, while
those behind loaded their revolvers. The din, as the circle inclosed by
the low wall filled with the assailants, was prodigious; the sharp
incessant crack of the revolver; the roll of musketry from the walls; the
yells of the enemy; the shrieks, which occasionally rose outside the gate
as the men in the towers scattered the boiling water broadcast over them,
formed a chaos. With the fury and despair of cornered wild beasts, the
enemy fought, striving to get over the wall which so unexpectedly barred
their way; but their very numbers and the pressure from behind hampered
their efforts.

If a man in the front line of defenders had emptied his revolver before
the one behind him had reloaded, he held his place with the sword.

"The wall's giving from the pressure!" Dick exclaimed to his father; and
the latter put his whistle to his lips, and the sound rang out shrill and
high above the uproar.

A minute later the front of the wall tottered and fell. Then Major