The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

charge of the conetruetion of the battery nearest the city—
at only 140 yards from it—which was finished satisfactorily,
and breache I the water-bastion of the city. I remained in
charge of the battery till the assault, in which my duties
were at follows :—I was directed to take charge of a party
of fourteen Sappers, with three noncommissioned officers
and another officer of Engineers named Salkeld, and to
proceed and blow in the Cashmere gate of the city. Owing
to delays the assault did not take place till sunrise, and 1
had to advance from Ludlow Castle (uncle Simon's house )
in broad daylight to the gate, place powder-bags against it
and explode them, and then give the signal fur the advance.
We all arrived at the gate quite safely, although we were
under a very heavy fire of musketry from the walls and
through the wicket of the gate, which was open. How-
ever, as we were laying the bags at the gate, we began to
lose men. There were two European non-commissioned
officers and one native killed. Salkeld was badly wounded
in the arm and leg. He has lost his arm, and his leg,
being wounded, is in splints. I hope he may recover, but
it seems very doubtful. I had also two natives wounded. I
myself escaped with a blow on the leg above the knee from
a stone, knocked up by a bullet. Out of twelve persons
who were at the gate six were killed or wounded. For
blowing in the Cashmere-gate in broad daylight General
Wilson has put in orders that Salkeld, a sergeant, a bugler,
and myself, are to get the Victoria Cross ; so we are, of
course, proportionably proud, we being the first peisons in
the Indian army to receive this decoration.
After we got into the city, owing to the heavy loss in
Engineers, nine out of seventeen who went into action
being killed or wounded, I was the third senior officer fit
for duty, so got charge of the left column of attack, and
was continually on duty until the King evacuated the
Palace. I had never more than four hours' sleep in the
twenty-four, and then only by snatches. I had also the
pleasure of blowing in the gate of the Palace, though no
one luckily fired at me, there being so few men left to
guard the Palace, and they were asleep. The gate was
blown in at noon. So now the Delhi business may be con-
sidered over, and I hope the country will soon begin to
get settled.
We had a tolerably sharp action with the rebels at Bo-
lundshuhur, which they occupied with about 2,000 men
and some fourteen guns; however, after three hours'
fighting, they bolted. They had, however, managed to
attack our baggage, and to cut up two sick Europeans who
were being carried in dhoolies. We found a lot of Euro-
pean property in the fort which had been looted from
Bolandshuhur. Walidad Khan was some relation of the
King of Delhi, and had continually intercepted our com-
munications during the row. He has now, I believe, gone
to Robilcund, which has become the refuge for the desti-
tute. 1 do not know where we go to from this place ; I
believe that the force is to go to Agra, but I should not be
astonished at its being ordered on to Cawnpore, to join
the force under Havelock. It is quite cool in camp,
though the sun is still powerful. I have not received
any letters from you by this mail, but hope to get some
soon. With best love to you all, believe me your affec-
tionate son,
DUNCAN C. HOME.

THE INDIA MAILS VIA MARSEILLES.-It iS not
expected that the mails, with the details of the
intelligence respecting the six days' hard fighting
for the final capture of Lucknow, will reach Lon-
don before Tuesday or Wednesday next. The
Pekin with the Bombay mail, arrived at Suez on the
19th inst., and H.M.'s ,ast despatch-boat Coquette
brought from Alexandria to Malta the telegram only.
The Bombay mail may therefore await at Alexandria
the arrival of the Calcutta and China mails, and
will then, with them, be conveyed to Marseilles per
Peninsular and Oriental steamship Vectis.