"But you all along agreed to our holding the courthouse, Forster,"
the Major said.
"Yes; but then I reckoned upon Cawnpore holding out with the
assistance of Nana Sahib, and upon the country remaining quiet.
Now the whole thing is changed. I am quite ready to fight in the
open, and to take my chance of being killed there, but I protest
against being shut up like a rat in a hole."
To the rest, however, the proposal appeared desperate. There would
be no withstanding a single charge of the well trained troopers,
especially as it would be necessary to guard the vehicles. Had it
not been for that, the small body of men might possibly have cut
their way through the cavalry; but even then they would be so hotly
pursued that the most of them would assuredly be hunted down. But
encumbered by the women such an enterprise seemed utterly hopeless,
and the whole of the others were unanimously against it.
The party broke up very early. The strain of maintaining their
ordinary demeanor was too great to be long endured, and the ladies
with children were anxious to return as soon as possible to them,
lest at the last moment the Sepoys should have made some change in
their arrangements. By ten o'clock the whole party had left.
The two subalterns had no preparations to make; they had already
sent most of their things into the hospital; and, lighting their
pipes, they sat down and talked quietly till midnight; then,
placing their pistols in their belts and wrapping themselves in
their cloaks, they went into the Doctor's tent, which was next to
theirs.
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