The British troops had marched from their encampment at Alipore at one in
the morning, and by nine A.M. the last Sepoy disappeared within the walls
of the town, and the British flag flew out on the signal tower on the
Ridge, almost looking down upon the rebel city, and the troops took up
their quarters in the lines formerly occupied by the Thirty-eighth, Fifty-
fourth, and Seventy-fourth native regiments. As the English flag blew out
to the wind from the signal tower, a thrill of anxiety must have been felt
by every one in Delhi, from the emperor down to the lowest street ruffian.
So long as it waved there it was a proof that the British Raj was not yet
overthrown--that British supremacy, although sorely shaken, still asserted
itself--and that the day of reckoning and retribution would, slowly
perhaps, but none the less surely, come for the blood-stained city. Not
only in Delhi itself, but over the whole of India, the eyes of the
population were turned toward that British flag on the Ridge. Native and
British alike recognized the fact that English supremacy in India depended
upon its maintenance. That England would send out large reinforcements all
knew, but they also knew that many an anxious week must elapse before the
first soldier from England could arrive within striking distance. If the
native leaders at Delhi, with the enormously superior forces at their
command, could not drive off their besiegers and pluck down the flag from
the Ridge, the time must come when, with the arrival of the
reinforcements, the tide would begin to flow against them. So India
argued, and waited for the result. The Delhi leaders, as well as the
English, felt the importance of the issue, and the one never relaxed their
desperate efforts to drive back the besiegers--the other with astonishing
tenacity held on against all odds; while scores of native chiefs hesitated
on the verge, waiting, until they saw the end of the struggle at Delhi. It
was called the siege of Delhi, but it should rather have been called the
siege of the Ridge, for it was our force rather than that of the enemy
which was besieged. Never before in the history of the world did three