All day the fighting continued, the British gaining ground on
either side. The next day the houses still intervening between them
were captured, and in the afternoon the defenders of the Residency
and the relieving force joined hands. The total loss of the latter
was 122 officers and men killed and 345 wounded.
Frank Mallett's letter to Sir John Greendale was not sent off. He
received a bullet through the left arm as the troops advanced
against the Secunderbagh, but, using his sash as a sling, led on
his company against the defenders crowded in the garden, and took
part in the desperate fighting. Three of his brother officers were
killed during the three days' fighting, and five others wounded.
"Well, Marshall," he said on the evening of the day when the way
was open to the Residency; "you have not cheated your creditor, I
see."
"No, Captain Mallett. I thought of him when those fellows in the
mosque were keeping such a heavy fire upon us as we were waiting to
get into the Secunderbagh. It seemed to me that his chance of ever
getting his money was not worth much. How the bullets did whizz
about! I felt sure that we should be all mown down before we could
get under the shelter of the wall.
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