Editing Ned Kelly (section)

===Siege and shootout===
[[File:The Kellys, the Glenrowan Quadrilles.jpg|thumb|left|A sketch by [[George Gordon McCrae]] shows the gang dancing with hostages.]]
By the afternoon of 27 June, the train still had not arrived, as the policemen in Sherritt's hut remained there until morning, for fear that the bushrangers were still outside.{{Sfn|McQuilton|1987|pp=156–57}} The outlaws meanwhile had gathered all sixty-two hostages in the Glenrowan Inn. Amongst them were sympathisers planted by the gang to help control the situation. As the hours passed without sight of the train, the gang plied the hostages with drink and organised music, singing, dancing and games.{{sfn|Jones|1995|p=206}} One hostage later testified, "[Ned] did not treat us badly—not at all".<ref name="seal2">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/outlawlegendcult0000seal|last=Seal|first=Graham|year=1996|title=The Outlaw Legend: A Cultural Tradition in Britain, America and Australia|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-55740-5|page=159}}</ref> However, Ned terrorised a young hostage by threatening to shoot him.{{Sfn|Dawson|2018|p=44}}

Towards evening, Ned let 21 hostages he deemed trustworthy to leave, then captured Glenrowan's lone constable, Hugh Bracken, with the assistance of hostage [[Thomas Curnow]], a local schoolmaster who sought to gain the gang's trust in order to thwart their plans. Believing that Curnow was a sympathiser, Ned let him and his wife return home, but warned them to "go quietly to bed and not to dream too loud".{{Sfn|Jones|1995|pp=230–231}}{{Sfn|McQuilton|1987|p=158}}

[[File:Thomas Curnow.jpg|thumb|upright|Hostage [[Thomas Curnow]] thwarted the gang's plans.]]
News of Sherritt's death finally reached the outside world at midday 27 June, and at 9 pm, a police special train left Melbourne for Beechworth. In addition to its crew and four journalists, the train carried sub-Inspector O'Connor, his native police unit, wife and sister-in-law. They stopped at Benalla at 1:30 a.m. to take on Superintendent Hare and eight troopers, raising the passenger count to 27. Hare ordered a pilot engine to travel ahead of them as a lookout. One hour later, as the pilot approached Glenrowan, Curnow signalled it to stop and alerted the driver of the danger.{{sfn|Jones|1995|pp=243–45}}

Kelly had decided to free the hostages and was delivering them a final lecture on the police when the train pulled into Glenrowan. The outlaws donned their armour and prepared for a confrontation. Meanwhile, Bracken escaped to the railway station to explain the situation to Hare and O'Connor, who then led their men towards the hotel.{{sfn|Jones|1995|pp=245–49}} It was just after 3 a.m.{{Sfn|Dawson|2018|p=64}}

The outlaws lined up in the shadow of the hotel's porch and, when the police appeared about 30 m away in the moonlight, opened fire. About 150 shots were exchanged in the first volleys, during which the outlaws withdrew inside the hotel. Someone shouted that women and children were present, prompting a ceasefire. Hare was shot through the left wrist and, fainting from blood loss, returned to Benalla for treatment. Jimmy, an Aboriginal trooper, sustained a glancing head wound and rejoined the fight once bandaged.{{Sfn|Shaw|2012|p=}} Ned was wounded in the left hand, left arm and right foot. Byrne was shot in the calf. Several hostages were wounded by police fire into the weatherboard building, two fatally: thirteen-year-old John Jones and railway worker Martin Cherry.{{sfn|Jones|1995|pp=249–50}} A third fatality, hostage George Metcalf, was either killed by police crossfire or shot accidentally by Ned.{{sfn|Jones|1995|p=250}}{{Sfn|Macfarlane|2012|p=1}}{{Wide image|Glenrowan shootout.jpg|700px|The gang and police exchange gunfire. Drawing by [[Tom Carrington (illustrator)|Tom Carrington]], one of several journalists present during the battle.}}

During the lull in gunfire, a number of hostages, mostly women and children, escaped the hotel.{{sfn|Jones|1995|pp=251–52}}{{Sfn|Morrissey|2015|pp=234–35}} Kelly, bleeding heavily, retreated about 90 m into the bush behind the hotel, where police found his skull cap and rifle at around 3.30 a.m. Kelly was lying in the bush nearby.{{Sfn|Dawson|2018|pp=34–35}}

Police surrounded the hotel throughout the night, and the firing continued intermittently. At about 5:30 a.m., Byrne was fatally shot while drinking whiskey in the bar, his last words being a toast to the gang.{{Sfn|Dawson|2018|p=36}}{{Sfn|McQuilton|1987|p=161}} Over the next two hours, police reinforcements under Sergeant Steele and Superintendent Sadleir arrived from Wangaratta and Benalla, bringing the police contingent to about forty.{{Sfn|Dawson|2018|p=37}}{{Sfn|McQuilton|1987|pp=160, 163}}