THE SIEGE OF DELHI. 221 



During the afternoon of July 5 Sir H. Barnard 

 breathed his last after a few hours' illness. 

 " Cholera then, as ever, was present in the camp," 

 writes Major (now Sir Henry) Norman, "and the 

 death of any one excited no surprise ; but no doubt 

 Sir Henry Barnard's attack was due in a great 

 degree to his unsparing exposure of himself to the 

 sun at all hours of the day, and to great mental 

 anxiety." He was "greatly regretted by the whole 

 force, and most so by those who knew him best. 

 Brave, kind-hearted, and hospitable, it is doubtful 

 if he had an enemy." ^ 



Hodson himself was naturally " much grieved, 

 for no kinder or more considerate or more gentle- 

 manly man ever lived. I am so sorry for his son, 

 a fine brave fellow, whose attention to his father 

 won the love of us all. It was quite beautiful to 

 see them together." " Poor M'Dowell," he adds, " is 

 down with fever — a sad loss just now to ' Hodson's 

 Horse,' as they call my growing corps." 



On the 8th Hodson and his Guides were out 

 again with a force commanded by Brigadier Long- 

 field, whose sappers blew up some bridges, and an 

 aqueduct over the Najafgarh Canal, about eight 

 miles from Delhi, thus cutting the rebels off from 

 the shortest road to our rear, and from one source 

 of Delhi's water-supply. 



On the morning of the 9th a brisk cannonade from 

 the city and the suburbs was followed by the sudden 

 rush of a hundred rebel horsemen upon a picket of 

 Carabineers and Horse Artillery posted to the right 

 of the Mound Battery. Mistaken at first for some 

 of our own Irregulars, they dashed through the 



* Norman's ' Narrative.' 



