It was horrible, but through it all there would come the remembrance of the horrors perpetrated by the savage mob and the brutal soldiery. There was a wild fascination about it, too, and I could not turn away, but stood with staring eyes and stunned ears, noting how the fire rapidly ceased, and wild cheering rose as room and roof were cleared.
I was standing by the window full of exultation, triumphing in the bravery and daring of the Englishmen, who must have been outnumbered by six to one, when I heard shots close at hand, yells, shouts, and the rush of feet; and the next minute my attendants and guards came backing in, fighting desperately as much in my defence as for their own lives, for they were driven from room to room by half a dozen men of the foot regiment that had stormed the place, and then for the first time I recalled that I was standing there in turbaned helmet and regular Eastern uniform, girt with jewelled belts, and with a magnificent tulwar at my side.
“They’ll take me for a Hindu chief,” I thought as, quick as lightning, I snatched out the blade.
I was just in time.
Half my defenders were down, the others had dropped from the windows in spite of the depth, and two men with levelled bayonets dashed at me.
I did not think I could have done it, but I had worked hard at sword practice, and with a parry I turned one bayonet aside, avoided the other with a bound, and sent the man who would have run me through, down on his knees, with a terrible cut across the ear.
The others turned upon me, but I had found my tongue.
“Halt! Back, you idiots!” I roared. “I am a friend.”
“Oh, bedad, an’ I don’t belave ye,” cried one of the party, as the others hesitated; and he held his bayonet to my breast. “Give up yez sword, or I’ll make a cockchafer of ye.”
I turned his point, and cut at another man frantically, for they were too much excited to listen to explanations. But in another instant I believe I should have been bayoneted, if there had not been a wild cry, and a dark figure rushed between me and my dangerous friends.