Kothi fled from it, there were fully 600 corpses inside the space surrounded by its ditch. During the whole siege there was no severer fight than this. The way was now opened for Brigadier Napier to proceed by the sap and heavy guns.
"Thenceforward," says Sir Colin, in his report, "he pushed his approach with the greatest judgment through the enclosures, the troops immediately occupying the ground as he advanced, and the mortars being moved from one position to another as ground was won on which they could be placed."
By the close of the day, on the 13th, the engineers had completed their work. All the great buildings on the left of the line as far as the Imambara had been sapped through. The artillery, which had been steadily playing on the walls of the Imambara, had made a breach which was considered practicable for an assault. The firing was continued through the night of the 13th, and on the morning of the 14th the heavy guns, at only thirty yards distance, pounded steadily away. The sepoys did not reply with artillery, but they kept up a steady fire of musketry from the tops of the walls. At 9 in the forenoon the order for the assault was given. The men went forward with a rush, and very speedily were in full possession of the palaces. They did not stop there, but pursued the rebels until they gained a position which commanded the Kaiser Bagh.
The engineers wanted to stop the advance of the troops; but this was easier to say than to do. The Sikhs of Brasyer's regiment were almost uncontrollable. They climbed through an embrasure into a bastion, and then made their way into a court-yard close to the Kaiser Bagh. The Tenth Foot advanced, and turned the third line of the defence by passing through the bazaars in the rear of the Tara Kothi. Re-inforcements were sent for, and Gen. Franks advanced immediately with all the men he could
