THE STORMING OF DELHI. 255 



own request he was to accompany the column 

 which Nicholson, after the capture of Delhi, would 

 lead in pursuit of the mutineers. " I am very glad 

 for my own sake," he writes, "that I am to go on, 

 for this place is dreadfully unhealthy, and I feel 

 that I shall certainly be ill if I remain here much 

 longer. In fact, I had made up my mind not to 

 remain if possible, and when Nicholson urged my 

 going on with him I was only too ready to second 

 the motion, for I am able to work and to fight, and 

 I must do so as long as I can," 



On the evening of the 13th it was known in camp 

 that Delhi would be assaulted on the morrow, and 

 that one of the storming columns would be led by 

 the all- daring Nicholson himself. " We had been 

 so long sitting before this doomed city," says Sir 

 H. Gough, "in the most trying heat and with 

 apparently fruitless labour, that the immediate 

 hopes of an end gave us all a most pleasurable 

 feeling. Knowing, as all did, that a desperate 

 struggle was at hand, few probably felt anything 

 but intense excitement and delight." 



On that same evening Hugh Gough himself 

 happened to have a talk with one of his native 

 officers, Kisaldar Man Singh, a fine old Sikh, who 

 had fought against us both in the Satlaj and the 

 Punjab campaigns. "We discussed the question of 

 to-morrow's big fight. As the old man was fond 

 of telling the story even to his dying day, to my 

 own boys amongst others, it runs in his words as 

 follows : ' Gough Sahib came to me on the day 

 before the assault and said, " Man Singh, there is 

 going to be a great battle to-morrow, and we are 

 going to take Delhi. Hodson says he will ride to 



