"
The enemy's batteries opened on the following morning more violently
than before. More guns had been placed in position during the
night, and a rain of missiles was poured upon the house. For the
next six days the position of the besieged became hourly worse.
Several breaches had been made in the wall, and the shots now struck
the house, and the inmates passed the greater part of their time
in the basement.
The heat was terrible, and, as the firing was kept up night and
day, sleep was almost impossible. The number of the besiegers had
considerably increased, large numbers of the country people taking
part in the siege, while a regiment of Sepoys from Cawnpore had
taken the place of the detachment of the 103d Bengal Infantry, of
whom, indeed, but few now remained.
The garrison no longer held the courtyard. Several times masses
of the enemy had surged up and poured through the breaches, but a
large number of hand grenades of various sizes had been constructed
by the defenders, and the effects of these thrown down from the
roof among the crowded masses were so terrible that the natives
each time fell back. The horses had all been turned out through
the breach on the day after Captain Forster's departure, in order
to save their lives. A plague of flies was not the least of the
defenders' troubles. After the repulse of the assaults the defenders
went out at night and carried the bodies of the natives who had
fallen in the courtyard beyond the wall.
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