and smaller. It is true that by thus allowing tens of thousands of rebels
to escape we allowed them to continue the war in the open country, but
here, as it afterward proved, they were contemptible foes, and their
defeat did not cost a tithe of the loss which would have resulted in their
extermination within the walls of Delhi.

Up to the 20th the palace still held out. This was a fortress in itself,
mounting many cannon on its walls, and surrounded by an open park-like
space. On that morning the engineers began to run a trench, to enable a
battery to be erected to play upon the Lahore gate of the palace. Before,
however, they had been long at work, a party of men of the Sixty-first,
with some Sikhs and Ghoorkas, ran boldly forward, and taking shelter under
a low wall close to the gate, opened fire at the embrasures and loopholes.
The answering fire was so weak that Colonel Jones, who was in command of
the troops in this quarter--convinced that the report that the king with
his wives and family, and the greater part of the garrison of the palace,
had already left was true--determined upon blowing in the gate at once.
Lieutenant Home was appointed to lead the party told off for the duty,
which was happily effected without loss. The British rushed in, and found
three guns loaded to the muzzle placed in the gateway, but fortunately the
Sepoys who should have fired them had fled.

The news that the palace was taken spread rapidly, and there was a rush to
share in the spoil. But few of the enemy were found inside; these were at
once bayoneted, and then a general scramble ensued. The order had been
given that no private plundering should be allowed, but that everything
taken should be collected, and sold for the general benefit of the troops.
Orders like this are, however, never observed, at any rate with portable
articles; and Sikhs, Ghoorkas, and British alike, loaded themselves with
spoil. Cashmere shawls worth a hundred pounds were sold for five