They had taken six hundred men to
Delhi and their casualties had reached three hundred and fifty. During
the siege the whole strength in British officers had been renewed four
times, and all these had been killed or wounded. One officer indeed had
been wounded six times and yet survived, another four times, and others
at least twice.
After his stirring speech, the General called for three cheers for the
little band of ragged and war-worn heroes, who stood before them. A _feu
de joie_ accompanied by a salute of twenty-one guns was then fired, and
after this the Guides, taking the place of honour at the head of the
line, marched past the flag.
CHAPTER VII
TWENTY YEARS OF MINOR WARS
Short breathing space, and little of the rest of peace awaited the
Guides on their return from Delhi. Within two months they were again
taking the field, under Sir Sidney Cotton, against the Hindustani
fanatics of Sittana.
These fanatics, as they were called, were really refugees from British
territory, for the most part deserters from corps that had mutinied, or
outlaws who had participated in some unforgivable outrage; some,
however, were clean-handed patriots, who, on principle, refused to bow
to the decree of destiny, or to become peaceful subjects of the Queen.
If the latter had remained quiet and inoffensive members of tribes or
communities beyond our borders, the British Government, never
vindictive, would probably, as the heat and passions of a desperate war
died down, have left them to their solitude.
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