THE SIEGE OF LUCKNOW.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 3166, 8 October 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE SIEGE OF LUCKNOW.

♦ Thirty two or more years ago the story of the siege ot Lucknow, told by the widow of the Brigadier who performed one of the greatest exploits of Mie Indian mutiny, would have been the book of its season and aroused profound interest. Even now, making, ns the work does, a curiously belated appearance, it calls for no apology. Five and thirty years have elapsed since the mutiny, but to quote Andrew Lan« (as I suppose it must be) in the Daily News "The memory of that heroic defence of the chief city of the Oude will be green as long as we remain a nation." Outram said the feat was unparalleled in European annals, and he did not say too much. Eighteen hundred men, with eight hundred women and children in their keeping, opposed fifteen thousand fanatics for nearly ninety days, beforo help of an any sort reached them from the outside. Even then, the hdp was but a reinforcement. The augmented garrison was bosieged in its turn, and it had still to wait for the final deliverance under Lord Ciyde. Sir Henry Lawrence was killed on the third day of the

siege.and thereafter Brigadier Inglis was in sole command. Tho diary of Lady Inglis is a story of the sublime in terror and endurance. The teiror perhaps was at its height in the short time preceding

Tirrc ACTCAr, outhkeak at lucknow. Colonel Injrlis had marched in with his regiment, in th o of 1857, and at that time all seemed to bo profoundly calm in India. There were indeed reports of disaffection over the cartridge question,and they were regarded in some quarters as signs of deep-seated discontent. But in India, especially,people have to learn not to believe in the worst until it happens, and few thought of the impending evil until the news of the cavalry rising at ITeerut reached the cantonments. Alarms followed thick and fast after that, and, as each arose, the ladies and children were prepared for instant ight. One evening the men of a native regiment rushed suddenly on the guns to secure them. They were received with a volley, for the British had received timely warning ; and they broke and fled, plundering the cantonments. Lucknow was in mutiny. The lines had to be abandoned, and theD the city ; and the handful of British were soon shut up in an ever-narrowing circle of fire.

Two tilings tended to save them ; ono, tho skill of Lawrence in delaying the rising which he saw to be inevitaUe, until the place had hecn put in a, position of defence. During the lime of d?.lay, every possible preparation was made by the British force. The other thing was the mutinous soldiery, in spite of their superior numbers, had a wholesome DREAD 08 , A lIAXD-TO-HAND CONFLICT with our troops. They were near the place, they battered holes in the walls, they crept up to the holes, and sometimes a dusky arm could be seen feeling round the edges of them for weapons that might have been left in the breach. But they shirked the great combined rush that must have overwhelmed the feeble garrison by the mere weight of numbers. They were well acquainted with the art of war, for they had profited by their lessons under British officers. Their mines were the perfection of spade work. The most successful countermining was under the direction of a Cornishman, who turned his native skill to account by listening for the sound of the enemy's picks. He came at last to detect the faintest tap at a great distance, and he was invaluable. The beleaguered force was much too weak to attack with effect, and its sorties were no more than SCATTERED EPISODES. It was often impossible to fetch in the wounded. One drummer lay for hours feebly moving under the rubbish that covered him—a heartrending sight. A comrade crept out to help him, crept back again for tools, but had to retreat, after all, under the heavy fire, and leave the poor fellow to die. The narrow escapes were innumerable. One of the doctors had his pillow taken away from under his head by a round shot, and lived to tell the tale. A man of the Madras Fusiliers lay for three days in a dry well, into which he had fallen during a sortie, not daring to call out. He was very hungry, but he was not hurt, and he was able to make himself heard when, at last, his ear caught the welcome sound of English voices. Sometimes the close shaves wore on the wrong side. Captain Fulton, father of Mr Fred Fulton, of Napier, who had been the life and soul of the defence under Inglis, had the whole of the back of his head carried away by a round shot. The face was left intact and. uninjured, so that when the body was laid out for burial there was not the slightest trace of a wound.

The crowding and confusion within the narrow lines were terrible, and the privations, even of the women and children, must have been only less distressing to witness than to be\r. Lady Inglis tells us how she had to refuse the gift of a little milk for a dying child to a poor woman whose husband had been killed. She had only just enough for her own children, and " babv could not have lived -without it," so she sfeeled herself to say "no." She encouraged her little boy's friendship for the HOUGH SIKH SOLBIEKS, for there was no kuowing how useful that might he, if the worst came to the worst. The children, for whom so much alarm was felt by others, naturally felt but little on their own account. They soon got used to the sound of the firing, and through the heaviest cannonades slept that sleep of tho ignorant, which is so much sounder than the sleep of the just. When they were awake they played at seiges, and bombarded the walls with pellets of earth to imitate the bursting of shells. The parents, meanwhile, discussed with the utmost calmness what might have to be done if no help came. At ono time. Brigadier Inglis " talked of blowing us up at the last minut-o." "But I havo since heard," adds the diarist, simply, " this would have been impracticable." This observation may serve to exemplify the ono that follows : —'"Strange, how calmly wo

talked on these subjects." Tho ngonisod women, in particular, eould not help thinking of what might be thoir fate, if the defence failed. TUB LAWFULNESS OK SUICIDE seems to have been a common topic of discussion with them : •' I said,

what I feel now, that it could not lie right; aud that I thought, if the time of trial came, our (!od, who sent it, would put it into our h-;> how to act, They told me sevi.T.il of the Indies had poison at hand.'' One day, when Lady was sic ting in her husband's room, the sound of distant guns struck her ear. " I shall never forgot the thrilling sensation of hope and joy that filled my heart. Ivich boom seemed to say, ' We, are comiiiQ to save you. 1 It was Cutrum and Havelock. In a few days, and after more firing, the Brigadier "came to us, accompanied by a short, quietlooking, gray-haired man, who I knew at ence was General Havelock." The relieving force had suffered most severely in fighting its way in. The men had been shot down hy scores from the loopholed houses, as they passed through the narrow streets to the Residency. When the final relief came, there was a contest as to which should be the last to leave. Sir James Outram waved his hand to the Brigadier to procede him, but the latter stood Cnn, Outraiu smiled and extended his hand, and they went out together. As the staff followed, there was a new contest between two of the Captains—Birch and Wilson. Captain Birch gave the other a shove with the shoulder, which ho had "learned in the Harrow football field." Wilson was rolled through the gate, and the friendly aggressor had the honor of being the last out.