'On the relief of Lucknow, the Major-General will resume his position at the head of the force.'

Sir James, having thus waived his rank in favour of Havelock, joined the column as a cavalry volunteer. After reciting this rare act of self-denial, one wonders less at the enthusiasm with which Outram inspired his comrades.

Once again, on September 19, Havelock crossed the Ganges and marched on Lucknow. Once again a series of stern conflicts began. On the morning of the 23rd the Englishmen in Lucknow heard the sound of artillery. Each report proved that the relieving force was advancing. On the 25th the rebels were descried in full flight, and English soldiers marching forward to the rescue. Then came the moment of supreme delight, when the two Generals, with their staff and the stream of soldiers, heated, worn, and dusty, arrived at the beleaguered garrison. To use the words of one of the noblest of the noble band who had defended that post so long and so bravely,

The Highlanders stopped every one they met, and with repeated questions and exclamations of "Are you one of them? God bless you! we thought to have found only your bones," bore them back towards Dr. Fayrer's house, into which the General had entered. Here a scene of thrilling interest presented itself. The ladies of that garrison with their children had assembled, in the most intense anxiety and excitement, under the porch outside, when the Highlanders approached. Rushing forward, the rough and bearded warriors shook the ladies by the hand, amidst loud and repeated congratulations. They took the children up in their arms, and fondly caressing them, passed them from one to another, to be caressed in turn; and then, when the first burst of enthusiasm and excitement was over, they mournfully

turned, to speak amongst themselves of the heavy loss which they had suffered, and to enquire the names of the numerous comrades who had fallen on the way.'*

I pause here one moment, to pay my humble tribute of respect to the memory of the writer of these touching words. Mr. Martin Gubbins was one of the many civil officers who took a full share in the dangers and toils of the defence of Lucknow. Havelock speaks truly of 'the noble conduct of Martin Gubbins ;' and it is sad to reflect, how both parties in these great events, the relievers and the relieved of Lucknow-Havelock, Outram, Inglis, and Gubbins-have passed away, worn out prematurely by the labours and anxieties of those stirring days!

The losses of the Englishmen who thus manfully forced their way through miles of buildings, each building a fortress in itself, were severe. Amongst others, the brave General Neill was shot dead in the streets of Lucknow. Young Henry Havelock was badly wounded, and General Outram shot through the arm, early in the day. Between the 19th and 20th of September ten officers and more than a hundred men had been killed, and three times as many had been wounded. When others were rejoicing at the relief of the garrison, Havelock was distracted by anxiety for the fate of his brave son Henry, who however was brought in, severely wounded, on the following day. Outram declared that the conduct of this young officer, in leading the men across the canal into Lucknow, was as 'gallant as anything at the Bridge of Lodi,' and at once sent up his name for the Victoria Cross.†

*Gubbins's Mutinies in Oudh, p. 301.

Young Havelock got the V.C. on his father's recommendation, for his gallantry in one of the battles before the capture of Cawnpoor-not on this occasion.

And thus the illustrious garrison of Lucknow was relieved. The great work on which Havelock had been so long and so earnestly bent had been accomplished. The stimulus of constant labour and pressing responsibility was over. The frame, hitherto subjected to extreme tension, when that stress was withdrawn seemed almost to collapse. To fight against odds, to overcome all sorts of obstacles, this was, to a spirit such as Havelock's, happiness supreme. But to wait for weeks in a state of comparative idleness, to be compelled to share the inaction of a beleaguered force-this was hard to bear. Such, however, was the fortune of war. The tide of revolt closed round the brave English as soon as they had forced their way to Lucknow, and they must await the approach of Sir Colin Campbell to set them free in their

turn. The dangers and the excitement of the early siege were wanting, and the time passsed heavily.

At last, in mid-November, the Commander-in-Chief marched sternly into Lucknow, and withdrew every living soul-man, woman, and child-from the stronghold which had sheltered them so long, and had been at once their prison and their asylum. The news of Havelock's earliest exploits had reached England. The honour of Knight Commander of the Bath and a baronetcy had been conferred upon him. But the latter honour was conferred when this world's honours were of little avail. On November 20, Havelock, already weakened and exhausted, became seriously ill. The hand of death, he felt, was upon him. When Outram came, on the 23rd, to visit his dying comrade, Havelock thus spoke: "I have for forty years so ruled my life, that when death

* Havelock died a K.C.B., but the baronetcy was gazetted in England after he was actually dead in India, and had therefore to be renewed in

his son.

came I might face it without fear.' On the next morning, as the troops marched out of Lucknow, Havelock died, and was carried in his hospital litter to the English encampment at Alumbagh, just outside the city.

He was a man of rare moral earnestness, of high selfreliance, tempered only by the higher trust of a Christian. His natural abilities were great, and they had been improved by constant study, and matured by the widest observation. If on common occasions he was silent and abstracted in his demeanour, in the hour of battle he was happy as a lover. He never lost either head or heart, and was the very pattern of a good soldier. From the day he landed as a subaltern until he went down to his grave in Lucknow, the life of Havelock was one lesson of supreme regard for conscience, for duty, and for honour. Just as his countrymen had learned his worth, he was snatched from their admiring gaze. His death was bemoaned in England as a national loss. Far across the Atlantic, the Anglo-Saxon family, who had heard of his wonderful advance from Allahabad to Lucknow, grieved over Havelock. At New York, at Boston, at Baltimore, the flags of the shipping were lowered, and the people sorrowed as though a national hero had passed away. In India we had known him better, and prized him longer. To many of us he had been as the type of order and power in a period of anarchy and weakness, and all declared that, whether as a man or a general, we had lost one of the bravest and best of the Englishmen. in India.

315

CHAPTER XXVII.

The following extracts from my Note-book,* when I was Magistrate and Collector of Mynpoorie, may serve to illustrate the working life of the ordinary Englishman in India :'

BIJAYEE SINGH OF MULLOWLIE.

6

Camp, Dec. 18. . .-Before I forget a day's work I lately had, let me try to make some note of it. To begin at the beginning. It was, I well remember, a burning day last July, when Jumaloodeen, my Deputycollector, first came to me about the Mullowlie case. The rain kept off, and the sky was clouded with dust, which obscured the sun like the ashes from a volcano. We used just then to have cutcherry open from before six in the morning till eleven; but, even at that early hour, the poorer of the omlahs and suitors who had to walk home, were occasionally struck down by coup-desoleil on their way. I had left the court, and was sitting down to my midday breakfast, when the Deputy was announced. I felt disinclined at the moment to receive a visitor, but, knowing that he was a man of business, who would not come a mile out of his way (when the thermometer was standing at 120°) without some good reason, I ordered him to be shown in at once. Jumaloodeen is a fine-looking man, like most Rohilla gentlemen, stout and broad-made, with a clear

*Notes of the North-Western Provinces.