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[1857-1858 A.D.] powers to act according to the best of his judgment. Not only did he countermand the return of the 84th to Rangoon, but he sent for a second regiment from that place and from Moulmein. IIe wrote to the governor of Madras, Lord Harris, to send him two regiments. More than that, recollecting that a combined military and naval expedition was on its way from England to China, to support there, by force of arms, the pretensions of the British, he took upon himself the responsibility of despatching a message to Lord Elgin and General Ashburnham to intercept that expedition and beg them to despatch the troops under their orders with all possible speed to India.f

BRITISH ADVANCE ON DELHI

The commander-in-chief in India during these proceedings of the terrible outburst was General the Honourable George Anson. But he died at Karmal, from an attack of cholera, on the 27th of May. He was succeeded in the command by Major-General Reed, who was worn out with age and sickness, so that this new commander-in-chief was obliged to devolve his charge upon Major-General Sir Henry Barnard, on the 8th of June, when he was within a single march of Delhi. Such were the effects of succession by the rule of seniority at a season when the prime of strength, activity, and promptitude was loudly and suddenly called for. Having cleared the way [by various skirmishes] the British army advanced to the attack upon Delhi; and for this purpose General Barnard divided his force into two columns, one of which, under the command of General Wilson, advanced upon the city along the main trunk road, while the other, headed by himself, proceeded through the cantonments which the rebels had burned and destroyed, and upon a ridge beyond which he found them posted in a strong position, well defended with artillery. In this, as on other occasions throughout the war, the rebels were turning the lessons they had learned against their instructors; but it was merely as humble imitators, and as schoolboys in rebellion against their teachers; the genius of the master-spirit to strike out new paths, or even to follow up the old to their highest result, was equally wanting among them and hence the disadvantage under which they constantly laboured, notwithstanding their overwhelming numbers and vast resources. Their position was taken in flank and rear, and carried by a rapid flank movement to the left on the part of General Barnard, and the rebels, abandoning their guns, were fain to take to flight, while General Wilson's column, pressing forward over high walls and through gardens, drove the fugitives back into the city. The British troops, having then re-united, established themselves before Delhi in a camp about two miles to the north of the city. Here upon ground high and rocky, and admirably suited for the siege, they were obliged to stand on the defensive for months, owing to the smallness of their numbers and the immense force of the rebel sepoys within the city. The entire amount of the European army who thus established themselves upon blockade before Delhi did not exceed three thousand bayonets, with a detachment of Gorkhas, who during these encounters aided the British and served them with admirable courage and fidelity.

THE REVOLT IN OTHER PLACES

During the course of these events that led to the siege of Delhi, the instances of revolt in the several portions of the Indian Empire continued to multiply in still closer succession; but to these, important though they were, we can only devote a brief notice. At Fathigarh it was thought advisable, when the

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rebellion had approached the neighbourhood, to send off the ladies and the children for safety to Cawnpore; and they were embarked in boats upon the Ganges, when, on hearing false reports of the safety that was still to be enjoyed at Fathigarh, a considerable part of them were tempted to return. Here, however, the mutiny broke out on the 18th of June; and the fort in which the Europeans had taken refuge was attacked, and after a desperate but fruitless resistance its inmates, to the number of one hundred, including women and children, embarked on the Ganges on the 4th of July, soon after midnight, but were fired upon from the banks by the sepoys; and in consequence of the stranding of one of the two boats, nearly all on board were killed or drowned, while those who escaped landed at Bithur, only to be murdered by Nana Sahib, who had his residence there.

At Allahabad, where the mutiny broke out in the beginning of June, the European officers, to the number of fourteen, were butchered on the parade ground by their own sepoy soldiers, the military station was destroyed by fire, and for several days the city was wholly given up to plunder and havoc, in which one hundred Europeans were killed. This state of outrage continued until troops were sent up from Benares, by whom the place was recovered, and a severe chastisement inflicted on the rebels.

A similar outbreak took place at Jhansi in Bundelkhand on the 4th of June, where such of the British residents as could not make their escape from the town retired into the fort, determined to sell their lives as dear as possible. Although they were only fifty-five, including women and children, they maintained the defence four days under an incessant fire of cannon and musketry, and only surrendered on the promise that all their lives should be spared. But no sooner had the rebels got possession of the fort than they violated their promises, and put all their prisoners to the sword. On the 3rd of June the revolt broke out at Azimgarh, nearly opposite to Benares, but accompanied with such circumstances of forbearance as to make this act, as compared with the other outbreaks, almost seem a virtue; for although the mutineers plundered an escort conveying treasure to Benares, they formed a square with the officers within to protect their lives, and brought carriages for the safe conveyance of the women and children, whom they actually escorted ten miles on the road to Ghazipur! At Benares, a small company of two hundred British soldiers maintained themselves against nearly eight times that number of Sikhs and sepoys who suddenly rose upon them, and held their position in the mint until British reinforcements were sent to their aid, and Benares, the Athens of Brahmanical learning, recovered from the revolters. It is gratifying to add that while this conflict at Benares was at the hottest, seventy Sikh soldiers who had been placed on guard of the government treasury, amounting to six lacs of rupees, defended their trust to the last, and restored it entire to the British troops when the insurrection was quelled.

This rebellion, which had nerved the most timid to deeds of daring and endurance, had also its natural effect in hardening the feelings to the stern modes of suppression and retribution which had to be adopted, and caused deeds to be regarded with toleration which, at other seasons, could not even have been heard of without a shudder. Writing on the 29th of June, a British resident mentions the permanent establishment of the gibbet at Benares, and adds: "Scarcely a day passes without some poor wretches being hurled into eternity. It is horrible, very horrible! To think of it is enough to make one's blood run cold; but such is the state of things here that even fine delicate ladies may be heard expressing their joy at the rigour with which the miscre ants are dealt with."

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THE DEFENCE OF LUCKNOW

When the rebellion commenced it was of the utmost importance to ensure the safety of Lucknow, the capital of Oudh, containing about 700,000 inhabitants. Accordingly, after the 3rd of May, Sir Henry Lawrence, who was acting as chief commissioner there in the absence of Sir James Outram, made active preparations for the defence of the residency.c

Of the acting chief commissioner Lord Roberts says: "Henry Lawrence was apparently the only European in India who, from the very first, formed an accurate estimate of the extent of the danger which threatened our rule in the early part of 1857, and who, notwithstanding his thorough appreciation of the many good qualities of the native soldiers, was not led into a mistaken belief in the absolute loyalty of the native army. Fourteen years before, Lawrence had predicted the Mutiny and the course it would take, and when events shaped themselves as he had foreseen, he gave it as his opinion that the defection would be general and widespread. But while his intimate knowledge of native character led him to this conviction, so great was his influence with the natives-perhaps by reason of that knowledgewas able to delay the actual outbreak at Lucknow until his measures for the defence of the residency were completed; and he persuaded a considerable number of sepoys not only to continue in their allegiance but to share with their European comrades the dangers and privations of the siege — a priceless service, for without their aid the defence could not have been made.

that he

The native force at Lucknow consisted of more than four thousand men, having about sixty European officers: the British troops did not number in all one thousand. Here the mutiny, after seven or eight weeks of indignant threats and murmurings, broke out on the evening of the 30th of May, and the commencement was with the usual deeds of violence; but when part of the 32nd regiment and the artillery were brought up, the rebels, after some loss, forsook the cantonments, and retreated towards Delhi. It was merely the first murmur of the storm that was to gather round Lucknow; and, aware of this, Sir Henry Lawrence redoubled his preparations for the strengthening of the defences, and multiplying the means of resistance. The most active of the rebellious emissaries were hanged; two members of the royal family of Delhi and a brother of the ex-king of Oudh were secured and imprisoned in that fortress; and thousands of coolies were employed with spade and pickaxe in repairing batteries, stockades, and trenches.

Everything available for war was brought within the residency, and among these were two hundred guns without carriages, which were discovered in a garden, and which now bristled upon the walls and ramparts of the British defences. While thus employed, it was learned that a body of the rebels were advancing, and Sir Henry Lawrence, with three hundred troops and a few guns, marched out on the 30th of June to oppose them, at the village of Chinhat, about eight miles from Lucknow. But the mutineers were so numerous that Sir Henry was defeated with serious loss, and in consequence of this disaster it was found necessary to withdraw the British troops from the military cantonments to the residency. On the 1st of July orders were given to evacuate the place. This was done accordingly, and 240 barrels of gunpowder and six million rounds of cartridges were lost, whether for attack or defence. The siege of the residency now commenced in earnest, and the defence made by the British is one of the most heroic episodes in the history of this disastrous rebellion. Hemmed in and all but overpowered, they con

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tinued their resistance with unabated constancy, notwithstanding their hopeless condition, and the disasters that multiplied upon them from day to day. On the 2nd of July their brave commander, Sir Henry Lawrence, was mortally wounded by the explosion of a shell that alighted in the chamber where he was reclining on his bed, worn out with anxiety and sickness. He died on the 4th, after appointing Major Banks his successor, and Banks was killed by a musket-shot on the 21st. In this critical situation the siege of Lucknow was continued, while the heroic defenders procrastinated their resistance in the hope of relief.

NANA SAHIB AND THE MASSACRE OF CAWNPORE

In so complex an event as the Indian rebellion, it is difficult, especially within a narrow compass, to follow out the details of the different outbreaks, or even to comprise their names; and hitherto we have been obliged to present only the chief of them, as specimens of the whole. By the end of June the native troops had mutinied at twenty-two stations. Of these stations, one of the most important in the history of this rebellion was Cawnpore. About ten miles higher up the river is Bithur, the residence of Nana Sahib, a miscreant whose name has constituted the foulest blot of this rebellion. This man, a compound of cruelty, craft, and cowardice, was originally named Dandhu Panth, and was the son of a Brahman from the Deccan; but having been adopted in the eastern fashion as a son by Baji Rao, the displaced peshwa of Poona, Nana Sahib, on the death of the latter in 1852, claimed as his lawful inheritance the continuation of the pension of eight lacs of rupees which had been allowed by the British government to the peshwa in consequence of his surrender. But this Hindu form of succession, by which childless princes could have continued successors to their rights at pleasure, had been [as we have seen] repudiated by the company, and the native claims upon it, which had died out with the extinction of these sovereign pensionaries who had no son of their own blood, were disallowed. Thus Nana Sahib, although already possessed of more than £4,000,000 by the death of Baji Rao, was disappointed in his avaricious hopes, and he nursed the spirit of revenge in his fortified palace at Bithur, where he was allowed to retain a bodyguard of two hundred soldiers. These circumstances, with his advantages of an English education, may account for the readiness with which he threw himself into the rebellion, the importance which he acquired in it as a leader, and the fiendish malignity with which he pursued it to the close.

The condition of Cawnpore at the commencement of the general outbreak was such as to cause serious alarm. The native troops in the cantonments consisted of three regiments of infantry and one of cavalry, mustering in all 3,860 men, having 115 European officers, while the other British troops scarcely exceeded 170. Sir Hugh Massey Wheeler was in command of the station; and as the cantonments were on a plain, and without any defences, he proceeded to throw up a breastwork of earth round the hospital and several smaller buildings, which served as a shelter for the Europeans when the storm arrived. And its coming was not long delayed. The native regiments rebelled, and went off in a body to Nana Sahib, who now found himself in a condition to take the field. He therefore immediately marched upon Cawnpore, plundered the treasury, and took possession of the magazine, that unfortunately had not been destroyed; and thus furnished with the sinews of war, he commenced on the 7th of June the siege of the slight earthern fortress that had been hastily thrown up. It was a defence better suited to resist a temporary

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[1857-1858 A.D.] riot than to withstand an army or hold out against a siege, and the astonishment was that it could have resisted for a single day, more especially when of the nine hundred persons contained within it 590 were women, children, and non-combatants. But this brave garrison continued their resistance till the 24th, although the cannonade of the besiegers was heavy and their attacks frequent, and although the heat, fatigue, and privations endured in the defence were such as might have quelled the bravest.c

A vivid account of the suffering of the besieged was afterwards written by Captain Mowbray Thomson, one of the two survivors of that garrison."

AN EYE-WITNESS' ACCOUNT OF THE CAWNPORE SIEGE

While in happy England the Sabbath bells were ringing, in the day of peace and rest, we were in suspense peering over our mud-wall at the destructive flames that were consuming all our possessions, and expecting a more dreaded fire that was to be aimed at the persons of hundreds of women and children about us. Very few of our number had secured a single change of raiment; some, like myself, were only partially dressed, and even in the beginning of our defence we were like a band of seafarers who had taken to a raft to escape their burning ship.

All through this first weary day the shrieks of the women and children were terrific; and often as the balls struck the walls of the barracks their wailings were heart-rendering; but after the initiation of that first day they had learned silence, and never uttered a sound, except when groaning from the horrible mutiliations they had endured. When night sheltered them, our cowardly assailants closed in upon the intrenchments, and harassed us with incessant volleys of musketry. Waiting the assault that was supposed to be impending, not a man closed his eyes in sleep, and throughout the whole siege snatches of troubled slumber, under the cover of the wall, were all the relief the combatants could obtain. The ping-ping of the rifle bullets would break short dreams of home or approaching relief, pleasant visions made horrible by waking to the state of things around; and if it were so with men of mature years, sustained by the fulness of physical strength, how much more terrific were the nights passed within those barracks by our women and children!

As often as the shout of our sentinels was heard, each half-hour sounding the "All's well," the spot from which the voice proceeded became the centre for hundreds of bullets. At different degrees of distance, from fifty to four hundred yards and more, they hovered about during the hours of darkness, always measuring the range by day light, and then pouring in from under the cover of adjacent buildings, or ruins of buildings, the fire of their artillery, or rather of our artillery turned against us. The execution committed by the twenty-four-pounders they had was terrific, though they were not always a match for the devices we adopted to divert their aim. When we wanted to create a diversion, we used to pile up some of the muskets behind the mudwall, and mount them with hats and shakos, and then allow the sepoys to expend their powder on these dummies, while we went elsewhere.

The sufferings of the women and children from thirst were intense, and the men could scarcely endure the cries for drink which were almost perpetual from the poor little babes; terribly unconscious they were, most of them, of the great, great cost at which only it could be procured. I have seen the children of my brother officers sucking the pieces of old waterbags, putting

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