The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-26 00:00:00

my heart breaking at the sight of these rascals getting

their deserts.

'I his is war in ate very worst phase, for generosity
towards an enemy seems to enter into 110 one's mind. If
anyone owes these sepoys a grudge I think I have some
claim to one, but I must say that I cannot bring myself to
put my sword through a wounded sepoy. I cannot say
that I grieve much when I see it done, as it invariably is;
but grieve or not, as you please, he is a clever man who
can keep back a European from driving his bayonet
through a sepoy, even if in the agonies of death. The
hardest fighting goes on at the right of our position. Our
batteries are at this point, and Pandy's whole efforts seem
concentrated on it. He has good cover from the Lahore-
gate of Delhi up to the very foot of the hills on which
our batteries are. This cover consists of houses, walled
gardens, and large inclosures with high walls l oopholed at
the top. They have made a good many attempts to erect
counte:•batteriea in these inclosures, and generally pay
the penalty. They were hard at work at one of these
batteries the other day, and like idiots had blocked up
every entrance but one. Twenty of our riflemen rushed
in at this door, whereupon Panay fled like a flock of sheep
into a corner, and commenced firing indiscriminately at
the riflemen, but being too much flurried did little damage.
On the approach of the bayonet they had the barefaced-
ness to beg for mercy. They might as well have begged
for mercy of a Sh3lock, for in another moment fusty of
them were lying pierced with bayonets. We have sepoys
hanged in our camp every evening, which I have no doubt
will astonish some of the people at home. I think
hear a faint wail from Exeter•hall and the usual talk of
European brutality and torture on the mild Hindoo sepoy.
If you hear any such sentiments by all means ship off
their propounder to this country at once. Let him see
one•hslf of what we have seen, and compare our brutality
with theirs, then send him home again, and I think you
will find him pretty quiet on the subject for the rest of his
liie. Thank goodness they seldom get hold of any of our
wounded, but woe betide the unfortunate when they do.
I myself had a narrow escape a few mornings ago. I
had received orders to prepare a survey of the ground as
close up to the walls as poss.ble, and for this purpose had
crept up not very far from them to " Ludlow Castle,"
where poor Mr. Simon Fraser lived. I had finished my
pacing and taken my angles, and was looking round me
at the desolation when I heard an explosion behind me,
and instantly saw the ground ploughed up either with
canister shot or shrapnel. I took the hint and walked off
leisurely, little dreaming of the truth. I even repaced a
distance I was not sure of. I was just outside the gate
of Sir T. Metcalfe's grounds, when I heard a horseman
galloping abo'it inside them. As I was a good deal in
advance of our pickets, and not very sure of my friend
on horseback, I crept behind a bush, and never felt more
thankful for a revolver I had borrowed for the occasion.
'the horseman, after prancing backwards and forwards
for sonic time out of my sight, moved off, and on my
return to camp, to the astonishment of everybody, I learned
what an escape I had had.
Pandy hail seen me from the walls, and had taken the
trouble to send out fifty horsemen (rather hard, fifty to
one !) to catch me. The horsemen had been seen from
o•tr right battery, who knew of my whereabouts, and
immediately sent word to our centre battery, which opened
fire on the cavalry and saved me, ovly one of the ruffians
having had the pluck to continue the search.