On the morning of the 8th of September the battery, eight hundred yards
from the Moree gate of Delhi, opened fire, and sent the first battering
shot against the town which had for three months been besieged. Hitherto,
indeed, light shot, shell, and shrapnel had been fired at the gunners on
the walls to keep down their fire, and the city and palace had been
shelled by the mortar batteries; but not a shot had been fired with the
object of injuring the walls or bringing the siege to an end.

For three months the besiegers had stood on the offensive, and the enemy
not only held the city, but had erected very strong works in the open
ground in front of the Lahore gate, and had free ingress and egress from
the town at all points save from the gates on the north side, facing the
British position on the Ridge. During these three long months, however,
the respective position of the parties had changed a good deal. For the
first month the mutineers were elated with their success all over that
part of India. They were intoxicated with treason and murder; and their
enormous numbers in comparison with those of the British troops in the
country made them not only confident of success, but arrogant in the
belief that success was already assured. Gradually, however, the failure
of all their attempts, even with enormously superior forces, to drive the
little British force from the grip which it so tenaciously held of the
hill in front of Delhi, damped the ardor of their enthusiasm. Doubts as to
whether, after all, their mutiny and their treachery would meet with
eventual success, and fear that punishment for their atrocities would
finally overtake them, began for the first time to enter their minds.

Quarrels and strife broke out between the various leaders of the movement,
and pitched battles were fought between the men of different corps. Then
came pestilence and swept the crowded quarters. A reign of terror
prevailed throughout the city; the respectable inhabitants were robbed and