Part 16 (1/2)

The instructions given to Havelock were to go first to the important city of Allahabad, situated at the place where the Ganges joins the Juarrison now consisted mainly of a few artillerye Benares, the 'Holy City' of the Hindoos, a little further down the Ganges, had been saved by the prompt measures of the resident and the arrival of colonel Neill with a detachment of the 1st Fusiliers The soldiers had come up from Madras and were instantly ordered to Benares, but when they reached the Calcutta station they found that the train which was to take the

The railway officials declared that there was no tiet in, and they would have to wait for the next train--many hours after For all answer Neill turned to his troops, and told theine driver and stoker till the coot to Benares in tiht had been fixed for the revolt

Having put down the rising at Benares, Neill pushed on over the eighty est arsenal in India except Delhi For five days the sepoys had been killing and plundering the British On hearing of Neill's approach, two thousand of them encamped near the fort in order to hold it, but an attack of the Fusiliers soon dispersed thee number to be executed in order to strike terror into the rest

Bad as was the state of things at Allahabad, where the railway had been destroyed and the garrison eak, it was still worse in Cawnpore, a hundred and twenty h Wheeler was in co the sepoys it was long before he would believe in the tales of their treason Even when at length his faith was partly shaken by the deeds done under his eyes, he still did not take all the precautions that were needful His little fort, which was to be the last refuge of the sick and wounded, women and children, in case of attack, was a couple of barracks one brick thick, which had hitherto been used as a hospital, and in this he gave orders that provisions for a twenty-five days' siege should be stored This was the place for which he intended to abandon the powder azine, where he could have held the enemy at bay for months

With inconceivable carelessness nobody saw that the orders for provisioning the fort were properly carried out, or the works of defence capable of resisting an attack By May 22, however, even sir Hugh Wheeler was convinced that there was danger abroad, and he directed that the woitives fro towns, should be placed in it

Altogether the refugees amounted to about five hundred, and the force of e did not begin till June 6, when the plain which surrounds Cawnpore was black with sepoys, led by the treacherous Nana

For three weeks the prisoners inside the fort underwent the s of every kind, and had it not been for the woh to the river As it was they felt they ht on, and the wos for grape-shot, and tearing up their clothes to bind up wounds, till they had scarcely a rag to cover theet Widdowson, stood, sword in hand, over a nuether by a rope Not one of their un was instantly levelled at the hand which was trying to untie the rope, and not a e By-and-by she was relieved by a soldier, and in his care ot away

[Illustration: Not one of their th hope sprung up in their hearts, for Nana offered a safe-conduct for the garrison down the Ganges to Allahabad, if only sir Hugh Wheeler would surrender the city It was a hard blow to the old general, and but for the woladly have died at their posts But for their sakes he accepted the ter Nana swear to keep thees, theto carry the sick, the women, and children down to the river, a mile away, for after their terrible imprisonment they were all too weak to walk; and behind them marched the soldiers, each with his rifle

Crowds lined the banks and watched theot into the boats, and pushed off with thankful hearts into the ht, the place where they had undergone such awful suffering Suddenly those looking towards the shore saw a blinding flash and heard a loud report Nana had broken his oath and ordered them to be fired on

One boat alone out of the whole thirty-nine ed to float down the streae in a little telishain, till the sepoys heaped wood outside the walls and set it on fire It was blowing hard, and the wind instead of fanning the flames put them out, and the defenders breathed once ers set fire to the logs a second ti to a safe distance, lay a trail of powder to blow up the te their bayonets they charged into the croards the river

When they reached the banks, seven had got through, and flung themselves into the stream Half-starved and weak as they were, they could scarcely ainst the swift current, and three sank and disappeared The other four were stronger swimmers, and contrived to hold out till they arrived at the territory of an Oude rajah as friendly to the English

It hile they were resting here that they heard of the awful fate of their countrymen After a time Nana had desired that the woht back to Cawnpore They were lodged, all of them, in two rooms, and here these stayed, hardly able to breathe, and almost thankful when the expected doos death elcoh it came by the hand of Nana Sahib

All this tinorant of the horrors that were taking place, was advancing towards Cawnpore, which he knew lish before it was possible to relieve Lucknow, lying further away across the plain to the north-west of Allahabad Neill had sent forward a detachment of four hundred British soldiers and three hundred Sikhs under major Renaud, and Havelock, who had arrived in the town just as they were starting, proet ready a larger force Eager soldier though he was, he had long ago laid to heart the truth of the old saying, 'for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; for want of a horse the dom was lost,' and he always took care that his nails were in their places Therefore he waited a few days longer than he expected to do, and spent the ti a body of volunteer cavalry, foriitive planters, and of anybody else that could be taught to hold a gun

The general was still asleep in the hot darkness of July 1 when a tired horseman rode into camp and demanded to see hieneral's tent, and in a few short words explained that he had been sent by Renaud with the tidings of the massacre of Cawnpore

[Illustration: A tired horseman rode into ca under two thousand an the march to Cawnpore, and five days after the start they had won about half-way to the city the battle of Futtehpore It was the first time since the mutiny broke out that the sepoys had been beaten in the field, and it shook their confidence, while it gave fresh courage to sir Henry Lawrence and the heroic band in the residency of Lucknow But the relief which they hoped for was stillhis way inch by inch, across rivers, over bridges, along guarded roads, with soldiers often half-fed, and wearing the thick clothes that they had carried through the snows of a Persian winter But they never flinched and never gru a fierce struggle for a bridge over the Pandoo river, one of the 78th Highlanders was killed by a round shot close to where Havelock was standing

'He has a happy death, Grenadiers,' reeneral, 'for he died in the service of his country'; but a voice answered froin ye've nae objection, I wud suner bide alive in the service of uns across the bridge were captured with a dash, and the sepoys retreated on Cawnpore In spite of their victory our round where they were Next , July 16, they set out on aon porter and biscuits, having had no other food for about forty hours

At the end of the sixteensun, the bugles sounded a halt For three hours the troops rested and fed, and then two sepoys who had remained loyal to their salt came in with the news that in front of us Nana Sahib, with five thousand uns, was drawn up across the Grand Trunk road, dohich he expected our guns to pass; and doubtless they would have been sent that way had it not been for the ti detachroves between the enees, and attacked from behind; the sepoys wheeled round in a hurry and confusion, and the Nana dared not order his right and centre to fire lest they should injure his own men, and before he could re-forhlanders were upon the terror into the heart of the Hindoos Once ed, led this time by Havelock himself, and the position was carried