The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

had not been for a stratagem I think they would have
taken our heavy guns and ammunition. Our colonel
ordered us to hide just as it was getting dusk, and then he
sounded the " reti►e ;" the " niggers," who, of course,
know our bugle sounds as well as we do, thinking that we
had actually gone back, came up at the double in thou•
sands, all of a mob. When about twenty yards distance it
was " Up, boys, and at them." They were greatly as•
tonished, and cut their sticks as fast as they could. I
have had a slight bayonet wound in the right side, and a
ball through the sleeve of my jacket. The old soldiers
who were at Mooltan, Goojerat, and other battles in
India, say that this far surpasses anything they have ever
witnessed.
Our siege guns have been at work since the 9th, but as
yet they have not displaced a brick. Our fire is anything
but good, while the shots of the enemy are flying about
our batteries like hail.

The following details, under date of June 17th,
from the same pen, are curious :
On the 19th the enemy were reinforced with one regi•
ment of infantry and one troop of artillery. During the
day their whole force made a wide circuit and got within a
mile of the rear of our camp before they were discovered.
The artillery and cavalry went out to check them ; three
oompaniea of our battalion were the first infantry force on
the field. After a very hard fight, which lasted till ten p.m.,
we were obliged to retire for the night ; owing to the dark-
ness, the 73th and one of our guns fired three rounds into
our company. We had one officer killed, two wounded,
and about thirty men killed and wounded. Some of the
wounded could not be found ; they were picked up the next
morning most horribly mutilated. Two of them (one a
married man with a large family) were skinned. We
went out the next morning (20th), but they retired after a
heavy artillery action.
The weather is very hot. I had twelve hours' outpost
duty on a plain, without the slightest shelter. I felt
during the day as if I had a hot iron guing into my head.
We have had a few deaths from cholera the last day
or two. 1,000 men are expected in h3urly. As soon as
they arrive we assault. We tried it once, hut it was no go,
information having been given to the Rajah.
Our rations, with the exception of ruin and bread, are
very bad—indeed, scarcely eatable. We get a gallon of
rum to every thirteen men, and sometimes a gallon to ten,
with a pound of bread each man daily. We should be a
long time starving on that. The rations cost, including
the rum, five annas—about 7d. per diem.
Information has just been received that the bridge of
boats has been burned, so that we are now entirely cut off.
1 am hard up for paper, and can't buy any.
As in the case of the Crimean war, these sergeants
write well and to the purpose. They seize the strong
points with great quickness, and skip irrelevant
details. There is a healthy tone in their letters, and
their literary composition rAlects great credit on
them.

Many of our cotaitrywomen in " the happy homes
of England" will doubtless sympatlii,e with the
feelings of the writer of the following letter.
It is dated from " Agra, European Barracks,
June lith." Its style is enough to prove that it
comes from "a lady" :
Until there is certainty of your receiving our letter
there is little use in writing any full account of the
terrible doings of the past fortnight; but God, in His
infinite mercy, has spared ali those dear to you. Our
precious little God, in His mercy, removed from us
the very night (Saturday, the 13th, at eight o'clock)
before we bad to fly from Gwalior. Poor little baby, it
was a bitter grief to us to lose him, but we felt that God,
in His great goodness, had taken him to Himself, and
spared him from suffering on the road, as he could not
have lived. Oh, how he suffered, dear, dear little pet ; he
was so patient ; but his last day was one of peace, and he
passed away as if in a deep sleep—how different that
peaceful scene to what followed on the following night.
must not lengthen this out, but only say that on Sunday,
the 14th, at nine o'clock at night, all the troops at Gwalior
broke out in open mutiny, burning the bungalows and
slaying every officer they could find. Many good, kind
men were brutally murdered before their wives. As it
was mercifully ordained, I, after dear little D—'s death,
went over to the M—'s house, which is on the banks of
the river, and thence we all escaped toi.clier, and fled to
the city, and through the kindness of the Maharajah our-
selves, with several others,found our way into Agra, where
we now are, all well, think God. We have lost everything
we ever possessed, arriving here with only the few torn
clothes we had on us; many of us without even shoes or
stockings. We are in the barracks, and, in case of Agra
being attacked, have the fort to fly to. We have great
reason for thankfulness that our lives are spared. It is no
use writing more, as you may never see this.
Both human as well as maternal feelings are exhi-
bited in the following extract from a later letter by
the same writer :
Oh ! how anxiously we are looking for the arrival of
more regiments. Delhi has not yet fallen. Our small
army has been now one month before the city, and we hope
daily to hear that our troops have entered it. Nearly every
regiment that has mutinied has immediately started off
for Delhi ,so you may imagine what overwhelming forces
our few troops have had to contend with Would
that I could see you; how much I have to say; the events
i of the last two months would take me a day to relate. The
Gwalior regiments have not advanced on Agra, as we at
first apprehended they would, but are busy fighting over
the spoil. It Is rather hard to think that we hare los