Leith and his friend were both riding for their
lives, when his friend's horse became frightened
and refused to move. In a moment he was surrounded
by half a dozen Sepoys, when the
Major, spurring his horse, rode down and killed
two or three of the rebels, and got his friend off
in safety. This was one of those fortunate acts
of daring where the very excess of courage
seems to neutralise the danger; of course the
Cross followed.

Lieutenant William Alexander Kerr, of the
Twenty-Fourth Bombay Native Infantry, dislodged
the rebel Twenty-Seventh when it
took, up a position in the stronghold of Kolapore.
Lieutenant Kerr made a dash at one
of the gateways with some dismounted horsemen,
and forced an entrance, killing or capturing
the defenders almost to a man. Lieut.-Colonel
Tombs and Lieutenant Hills both had the Cross,
the latter for holding the position assigned to
him against fearful odds and terrible danger,
the former for "twice coming to his subaltern's
rescue, on each occasion killing his
man."

Sergeant John Smith was with Lieutenants
Home and Salkeld—those gallantest of the
gallant, those bravest where all were brave, and
heroic above the hero's ordinary heroism—when
they blew up the Cashmere gate at Delhi. He
was fortunate enough to escape, and had the
Cross as but a poor reward for the courage he had
displayed. Bugler Robert Hawthorne was of
the same explosion party. " He not only performed
the dangerous duty on which he was employed,
but previously attached himself to
Lieutenant Salkeld, when dangerously wounded,
bound up his wounds under a heavy musketry
fire, and had him removed without further
injury." Lance-Corporal Smith gallantly carried
away a wounded comrade under a heavy fire of
grape and musketry, in the assault of Delhi; and
Sergeant Bernard Diamond and Gunner Richard
Fitzgerald were both decorated for working their
gun under a heavy fire. After every other man
belonging to it had been either killed or
wounded, these two stood quietly by their gun,
and cleared the road of the enemy, as they were
told to do. But Gunner William Connolly was
one of the most devoted of them all. We will
let Lieutenant Corkes tell the story:

"About daybreak," he says, " I advanced my half
troop at a gallop, and engaged the enemy within
easy musket range. The sponge-man of one of my
guns having been shot during the advance, Gunner
Connolly assumed the duties of second sponge-man,
and he had barely assisted in two discharges of his
gun, when a musket-ball through the left thigh
felled him to the ground; nothing daunted by pain
and loss of blood, he was endeavouring to resume his
post, when I ordered a movement in retirement, and
though severely wounded, he was mounted on his
horse in the gun-team, and rode to the next position
which the guns took up, and manfully declined going
to the rear when the necessity of his so doing was
represented to him. About eleven o'clock A.M., when
the guns were still in action, the same gunner, whilst
sponging, was again knocked down by a musket-ball
striking him on the hip, thereby causing great faintness
and partial unconsciousness, for the pain appeared
excessive, and the blood flowed fast. On
seeing this, I gave directions for his removal out of
action; but this brave man, hearing me, staggered to
his feet, and said, 'No, sir, I'll not go there whilst I
can work here;' and shortly afterwards he again resumed
his post as sponge-man. Late in the afternoon
of the same day my three guns were engaged
at one hundred yards from the walls of a village with
the defenders, viz. the 'Fourteenth Native Infantry—
mutineers—amidst a storm of bullets which did great
execution. Gunner Connolly, though suffering severely
from his two previous wounds, was wielding
his sponge with an energy and courage which
attracted the admiration of his comrades, and while
cheerfully encouraging a wounded man to hasten in
bringing up the ammunition, a musket-ball tore
through the muscles of his right leg; but with the
most undaunted bravery he struggled on; and not
till he had loaded six times did this man give way,
when, through loss of blood, he fell in my arms, and
I placed him on a waggon, which shortly afterwards
bore him in a state of unconsciousness from the
fight."

Lieutenant Aikman got the Cross for routing
five hundred infantry and two hundred horse,
for capturing their two guns, and cutting up
more than a hundred men; all on broken ground
and under the flanking fire of an adjoining fort,
while at the head of only one hundred Sikh cavalry.
He was badly wounded in the face, but
never flinched, and won the day and his reward
in rare, dashing, gallant style.

Lately two civilians have been decorated,
richly meriting the distinction. The one was
Mr. Kavanagh, assistant commissioner in Oude,
who, when Sir James Outram was besieged
in Lucknow, volunteered to pass through the
enemy's force and make his way to the camp
of the commander-in-chief, and guide him
back to Lucknow. By a miracle of prudence
and daring he succeeded in his attempt,
and has received his reward. The other was
Mr. Ross Lewis Mangles, assistant magistrate
at Patna. Mr. Mangles, who was himself also
wounded, carried for several miles out of action
(on the night when Captain Dunbar, on his way
to relieve Arrah, fell into an ambuscade) a
wounded soldier of the thirty-seventh. He had
bound up the soldier's wounds under a murderous
fire, and then bore him for miles in safety
to the boats. The two civilians have earned
their gun-metal cross as truly as any red-coat or
blue-jacket of the service; and it is matter for
rejoicing that valour is not considered merely
professional, but is to be recognised in civilians
by the same means with which it is rewarded and
distinguished in the army and navy.

The Victoria Cross carries £10 a year pension
with it, for each non-commissioned officer and
private, with an additional annuity of £5 for
every additional bar. The difficulty experienced
in obtaining materials for this article had to be
overcome, also, by Mr. Desauges: it was the
extreme modesty of the originals. Never from
the hero himself could that gentleman extract
enough for the baldest sketch. It was in some
spectator of the exploit that his hopes lay.