It is not danger that
I fear in the slightest, it is that horrible noise. I know well
enough that the moment the firing begins I shall be paralyzed. My
only hope is that at the last moment, if it comes to hand to hand
fighting, I shall get my nerve."
"I have no doubt you will," Wilson said warmly; "and when you
do I would back you at long odds against any of us. Ah, they are
beginning."
As he spoke there was a salvo of all the guns on the three Sepoy
batteries. Then a roar of musketry broke out round the house, and
above it could be heard loud shouts.
"They are coming, Major," the Doctor shouted down from the roof;
"the Sepoys are leading, and there is a crowd of natives behind
them."
Those lying in the middle of the curve of the horseshoe soon caught
sight of the enemy advancing tumultuously towards the breach. The
Major had ordered that not a shot was to be fired until they reached
it, and it was evident that the silence of the besieged awed the
assailants with a sense of unknown danger, for their pace slackened,
and when they got to within fifty yards of the breach they paused
and opened fire. Then, urged forward by their officers and encouraged
by their own noise, they again rushed forward. Two of their officers
led the way; and as these mounted the little heap of rubbish at
the foot of the breach, two rifles cracked out from the terrace,
and both fell dead.
There was a yell of fury from the Sepoys, and then they poured in
through the breach.
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