'DELHI WILL BE ATTACKED ON A DARK NIGHT.' 115 besiege the Fort. Under these circumstances, Thornhill and the rest of us have come to the conclusion that there is no use in staying on at Muttra, and we intend going into Agra, or, at all events, making the attempt; Thornhill and his clerk are going by land, the rest by water. This is, therefore, to give you notice that you will no longer get information from this place from me; but I will tell the settlement officer to keep you informed of what goes on. Yours sincerely, H. M. DASHWOOD. Colonel KEITH YOUNG to his wife. Camp, Delhi CANTONMENTS, Wednesday, 8th July. Never mind about the loss of the money that was stolen from the store closet; but it's very annoying to think that one of our own servants should be the thief. The kitchen servants you might suspect-perhaps the masaulchee, as we know less about him than the others; or perhaps Gyanee. Or are there any of your guests' servants who were ever in the store-room and knew where the cash-box was put? You might offer a good reward, say fifty or a hundred rupees, for the apprehension of the thief; and glad indeed shall I be to hear that he has been discovered. I am going to write to Mr Philipe to say that Sergeant Larkin had better sleep in the house until Delhi is taken. I will ask Mr Philipe to arrange for a janpan for Sergeant Larkin in the event of its raining; and you might let him have Doddy's pony to ride backwards and forwards-it will do the pony good, and keep him quiet. No, Delhi is not yet taken, and I begin to think that I was premature in saying we should be inside the walls this week. It is not a bright moonlight night that will be chosen for the attack, but a dark rainy one most probably, so that we can get up to the walls without being discovered; and there will be a bright moon for many nights yet. It is clear that it cannot be to-morrow under any circumstances, as half the force has gone out on an expedition to a place some nine miles off to blow up a large bridge there, the more effectually to prevent the mutineers from getting on the Trunk Road without making a circuit of some twelve miles or more-which they are not likely to attempt.* * The bridge was called the Bussye bridge, and crossed the Nujufghurh branch canal. 116 LARGE FOrce senT TO DESTROY A BRIDGE. The force, some twelve hundred Infantry, with Cavalry and lots of guns, started about three this morning under Colonel Longfield. Hodson is with them. Some of the enemy were supposed to be somewhere in the direction of where our force was going, and it is to be hoped it will fall in with them; but I doubt it. It is now near 1 P.M., and we have heard no firing yet; and the bridge cannot have been yet blown up, as the noise of the explosion would have reached us. The people in the city are as quiet as possible again to-day, and except for an occasional shot from the walls, we should not know that there was any one there. Some of General Anson's things were sold yesterday by auction, and several articles brought a very absurd price. Bacon (English), for instance, five rupees a pound, and candles three; other things, again, sold below cost price. They are going to get up a Head-Quarters' mess, or rather have got it up for it commences operations to-day. Everybody has joined; but Mactier and I, though members, remain on with the Artillery mess for the present, and are not to pay for the new mess until we commence dining at it-which I don't think I shall do for some time yet. I like going to the Artillery mess: they are a very nice set of fellows, and have excellent food too; but I dare say this will be pretty well attended to at the Staff mess, as Congreve is one of the leading members of it! He and many others had been living at General Barnard's table up to the day of the kind old General's death. It was rather an infliction having to feed so many strangers, and he got no allowance whatever for it. Captain Briggs, I told you, was down here, having come, he says, to organise a land transport corps (alias a bullock-train) betwixt this and Lahore. He left this morning. Hodson has just come back in advance of the returning force, which, he says, have done nothing but blow up the bridge, and have seen no one except the villagers, who came out with expressions of devotion and ghuras of milk-the latter the more acceptable of the two. I expect there will be a great outcry in camp, especially amongst the Artillery, at so large a body of troops going out and doing nothing beyond superintending the destruction of the bridge. Chamberlain certainly will never be pucka Adjutant-General, and he does not wish to be so, I believe, himself, as he hates |