THE SIEGE OF DELHI. 23 



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might, as I have more than once, see things going 

 wrong at a time and place when I might be merely 

 a spectator and not ' on duty,' or ordered to be 

 there, and I might feel that by exposing myself 

 to danger for a time I might rectify matters, and 

 I might therefore think it right to incur that 

 danger ; and yet if I were to get hit it would be 

 said, ' He had no business there ' ; nor should I, as 

 far as the rules of the service go, though in my 

 own mind I should have been satisfied that I was 

 right. These are times when every man should 

 do his best, his utmost, and not say, ' No ; though 

 I see I can do good there, yet, as I have not 

 been ordered and am not on duty, I will not do it.' 

 This is not my idea of a soldier's duty, and hitherto 

 the results have proved me right." 



From the afternoon of August 1st until late on 

 the following day the mutineers made persistent 

 attacks alons the right front and flank of the British 

 lines. "All night long," says Norman, "the roar 

 of musketry and artillery was incessant. Constantly 

 they came close up to our breastworks, but were 

 always repulsed by the fire of our infantry, aided, 

 when practicable, by grape. Our light mortars, too, 

 played with eff"ect upon the masses below the ridge ; 

 but it was not till 10 a.m. of the 2nd that their 

 efi'orts began to cease, and they did not altogether 

 retire until 4 p.m." 



Meanwhile the heavy rains which had frustrated 

 the enemy's attempts to cut ofi" a British convoy on 

 July 31 were also working a sensible improvement 

 in the health of our troops. By August 3 no fresh 

 case of cholera had been reported in the last four 



