In five minutes all the tars and the Highlanders--who arrived on the
ground immediately after the sailors--were at work pulling down houses, so
as to arrest the progress of the flames by isolating the burning block.
Upon three sides they succeeded, but upon the other the fire, driven by
the wind, defied all their efforts, and swept forward for half a mile,
until it burned itself out when it had reached the open country. In its
course it had swept away a great part of the worst and most crowded
quarters of Cawnpore.

All through the evening and night the troops and sailors toiled; and
morning had broken before all danger of any further extension was over;
the men were then ordered home, a fresh body of troops coming up to
preserve order, and prevent the robbery, by the lawless part of the
population, of the goods which had been rescued from the flames. Then,
after a ration of grog had been first served out to each man, and
breakfast hastily cooked and eaten, all sought their tents, exhausted
after their labors.

It was not until evening that signs of life were visible in the camp. Then
men began to move about; and an orderly presently came across to request
the Warreners to go to Captain Peel's quarters to report the circumstances
through which the fire arose.

The lads related the history of the affair from the time when they had
come upon the scene, and Captain Peel expressed himself in terms of warm
laudation of their gallantry, quickness, and presence of mind. Then the
sailors were called up, and their story, although longer and more diffuse
than that told by the Warreners, was yet substantially the same, and
Captain Peel told the men that they ought not to have wandered in that way
into the slums of Cawnpore, but that beyond that indiscretion they had