principally made. On the left of the Ridge the ground is flat to the
river, which sweeps along by the wall of the town and palace. There are
two bridges across it, and over them the exulting mutineers were for weeks
to pass into the city--not altogether unpunished, for our guns carried
that far, and were sometimes able to inflict a heavy loss upon them as
they passed, with music playing and flags flying, into the town.

"A glorious city!" Ned Warrener said, as they looked down upon it. "What a
ridiculous handful of men we seem by the side of it! It is like Tom Thumb
sitting down to besiege the giant's castle. Why, we should be lost if we
got inside!"

"Yes, indeed, Ned," said his father; "there will be no possibility of our
storming that city until our numbers are greatly increased; for if we
scaled the walls by assault, which we could no doubt do, we should have to
fight our way through the narrow streets, with barriers and barricades
everywhere; and such a force as ours would simply melt away before the
fire from the housetops and windows. There is nothing so terrible as
street fighting; and drill and discipline are there of comparatively
little use. The enemy will naturally fight with the desperation of rats in
a hole: and it would be rash in the extreme for us to make the attempt
until we are sure of success. A disastrous repulse here would entail the
loss of all India. The news is worse and worse every day from all the
stations of the northwest; and as the mutineers are sure to make for
Delhi, the enemy will receive reinforcements vastly more rapidly than we
shall, and it will be all we shall be able to do to hold our own here. We
may be months before we take Delhi."

"I hope they won't keep us here all that time," Dick said, "for cavalry
can't do much in a siege; besides, the ground is all cut up into gardens