FIRST WEEKS OF THE SIEGE OF DELHI. 213 



the 13tli another of these attacks was led by the 

 60th Native Infantry. The assaiLants, writes Hod- 

 son, " suffered for it as usual, but also, as usual, we 

 lost several good men whom, God knows, we can 

 ill spare." He himself "had to run the gantlet 

 now and then of a rain of shot and shells with 

 which the rebels belaboured us. Our artillery 

 officers themselves say that they are outmatched 

 by these rascals in accuracy and rapidity of fire ; 

 and as they have ud limited supply of guns and 

 ammunition from our own greatest arsenal, they are 

 quite beyond us in many respects. I am just 

 returned from a long ride to look after a party of 

 plunderers from the city who had gone round our 

 flank : I disposed of a few." 



Almost daily the rebels attacked some part of 

 Barnard's jjosition. In Hodson's ow^n words, " We 

 are as nearly besieged as the rebels themselves are, 

 and we lose valuable lives in every encounter." 

 Meanwhile, from the 16th to the 20th, he himself 

 was confined to his tent with a severe inflamma- 

 tory cold. 



" Every one is very kind, the general particularly 

 so : he insists on having me in his own tent, as 

 being so much larger than my own, and he takes 

 the most fatherly care of me. ... I woke in the 

 night and found the kind old man by my bedside, 

 covering me carefully up from the draught." 



By the 20th Hodson was much better, but still 

 very weak. On the previous evening the rebels 

 had assailed our rear with some 2000 men and six 

 guns. After a sharp fight they were chased back 

 with heavy loss to their own lines by the 9th 

 Lancers and the cavalry of the Guides. Colonel 



