The Conflagration
 

[ Pt. hi
 

CHAPTER   IV

DELHI FALLS
 

When the third chief commander of the English army before
Delhi became hopeless of taking the town and resigned, Brigadier-
General Wilson replaced him. At that time, in the camp of the
English army maddened by the attacks of the Revolutionaries, it
was seriously discussed, in despair, whether the siege should be
raised. It is difficult to say what would have been the course
of the Revolution of 1857 if this plan had been resolved upon.
Still, it is clear that this one movement on the part of the
English would have harmed their cause more than many defeats
at the hands of the Revolutionaries. The English had a strategic
advantage in thus besieging the town of Delhi, because the
Revolutionary army was shut up there in one place. If that
vast host had spread over the province instead of being thus
bottled up and had harassed the English after forming small
detachments everywhere, this guerilla warfare would have soon
reduced the small English force to impotence. But Delhi being
besieged, the battlefield was restricted, the English force had
not to put up with an unbearable strain, and the Revolutionaries
were inconveniently huddled up together in one city and thus
were more liable to attack. In these circumstances, to raise
the siege of Delhi was to break the dam and let the Revolu¬
tionary forces inundate the whole country. Even if Delhi were
captured, the Sepoys would no doubt have spread all around.
But there was a vast difference between driving them out of
Delhi, defeated and dejected, and making them elated by raising
the siege and allowing them to fall upon the English.    Though

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