of the disorganized condition of the districts of the Dooab, which latter state of things began seriously to affect the feeling of the people of our Oudh districts, bordering on the Ganges. Our border magistrates also reported that the utmost disorder prevailed on the other side of the river, and that its contaminating effect was already felt among their villages. Sir Henry Lawrence accordingly resolved on sending a force of artillery, cavalry, and infantry, up the Grand Trunk Road to assist in restoring order. On the 26th of May, consequently, a force marched for Cawnpoor, under command of Major Gall. It consisted of a squadron of Gall's Irregular Cavalry, under his own command, assisted by a volunteer, Mr. Macrae; four companies of the 4th O. I. Infantry, under Captain Hughes, to which was added one company of the 1st O. I. Infantry; and two light-horse battery guns, under Lieutenant Ashe. The force encamped at Chillanwa, eight miles from Lucknow, on that day. About noon I received an order from Sir Henry to despatch a messenger to countermand Major Gall's advance. This was done, but the horseman brought back an earnest entreaty from Major Gall to be allowed to go on. All the men were described as being in the highest spirits. The commander's request was supported by myself. The force had moved out: its recall would be attributed to alarm it might at all events march on to Cawnpoor. Sir Henry Lawrence acquiesced in the representation made, and I carried his order to advance to the camp that evening. It was received by all the European officers, Major Gall and Mr. Macrae, Lieut. Ashe, Captain Hughes, Lieutenant Soppit, and Dr. Partridge, with loud cheers, and in twenty minutes the force was on the march. It was not destined to accomplish anything. On reaching Cawnpoor, the company of

the 1st O. I. Infantry demurred to proceeding further. The whole infantry, therefore, all but forty men, were sent back across the river to Onao. And the cavalry and artillery made one march up the Trunk Road; when they fortunately received intelligence from Mynpoorie, of the disaster which had befallen Hayes' party, and returned. General Wheeler, being short of artillery, retained Lieutenant Ashe, with his guns, at Cawnpoor. Major Gall, Captain Hughes, and the other officers, with the cavalry and infantry, returned to Lucknow. Captain H. Forbes, acting-commandant of Daly's Horse, had at the same time a narrow escape. He had proceeded to Cawnpoor, in order to overtake and take command of the squadron of his regiment on duty with Captain Hayes, and was travelling up the Trunk Road, in advance of Gall's party, in a post-carriage. He was fortunately seen and stopped by the Seikh Naib Risaldar Sheyresingh, who was returning from the scene of Hayes' disaster, just in time to save him from destruction; for a few miles only in advance, the road was covered with mutineers, horse and foot, from whom escape would have been impossible.

Lieut. Ashe, having been thus detained by Sir Hugh Wheeler, joined the ill-fated garrison at Cawnpoor. His native gunners were not allowed to enter the intrenchment, and necessarily deserted. His guns were of much service in furthering the defence, so long and so marvellously maintained by our devoted countrymen; and Ashe himself was conspicuous for his daring gallantry, and fearless exposure of himself. He survived the siege, only to fall a victim to the murderous fire so treacherously opened by the miscreant Nana upon the boats in which the garrison had embarked.

About this time the conduct of the troops at Allahabad had caused great uneasiness there, which was communicated by the magistrate, Mr. Court, to Sir Henry Lawrence. The importance of preserving that fortress and magazine was so great, that the Chief Commissioner directed Captain Hardinge to send a wing of his regiment, the 3rd O. I. Cavalry, cantoned at Purtabgurh, to Allahabad. This was done. Hardinge's men behaved well; and for some days kept in check the mutinous 6th Regt. of N. I.

25th of May.-Up to this time, despite the disorganized condition of the north-western districts, no overt act of lawlessness and insurrection had manifested itself in Oude. Now, however, some of the disaffected began to manifest their ill-feeling. Some of the worstdisposed talooqdars began to repossess themselves of the villages which they had lost, and especially the Zemindars of Mulheeabad and its neighbourhood, distant about eighteen miles west of Lucknow, manifested marked disaffection. They are descendants of Afredees, originally from the Khybur mountains, greedy, poor, and idle. They began assembling in their villages, and threatened the local treasury at Mulheeabad. To repress them, Captain Weston, with a party of military police, was detached, with apparent good effect.

Sir Henry Lawrence now thought that a demonstration by a small military force moving through the country on our Ganges border might be useful, and as Major Marriott, pension-paymaster at Lucknow, was required to repair to Futtehgurh to disburse the military pensions there, it was resolved that a force should accompany him. The Light and Rifle Companies of the 48th N.I., under Major Burmester and Lieutenant Farquharson, with a squadron of the 7th Light Cavalry,

under Captain Staples, with two subalterns, Lieutenants Boulton and Norman Martin, were accordingly ordered out, and marched from the capital on the 28th of May. The force was accompanied by Major Marriott and by Lieutenant Hutchinson, Engineers, in a political capacity, with Lieutenant Tulloh as his assistant, -and the last-named three officers had a special guard of twenty Seikh Irregular Horse. For the first few days, the sepoys and Regular Cavalry behaved well. When, however, the detachment neared the station of Mullaon, tidings of the mutiny at Lucknow reached the men, who soon became insubordinate. They refused to proceed on the road towards Futtehgurh, and took that leading to the Mehndeeghat Ferry over the Ganges, which is on the direct line towards Dehli, taking their officers along with them. Arrived at the ghaut, an effort was made to stay them, and with success. The men agreed to cross the river, and march not to Dehli, but to Cawnpoor, and thence return to Lucknow. About fifty of the worst of them broke away, and started for Dehli. The force was about to cross on the following day, when news of the Cawnpoor mutiny came in, and then all order was at an end. The whole of the men revolted. Lieutenants Hutchinson and Tulloh, with Major Marriott, withdrew under the protection of their twenty Seikhs, who remained staunch, after advising the other officers to come with them. But their advice was declined. Major Burmester and Captain Staples still hoped that their men might be reclaimed to obedience, and resolved to accompany them. The subalterns, of course, remained with their commanders.

That this conduct was mainly dictated by that blind and unwise confidence in the attachment of the native soldiers, which has cost the life of so

many a brave officer, is no doubt true. Still it is impossible not to admire the devotion of the soldiers who thus put their lives to peril. Alas! none of these brave men survived. The mutineers marched to Chobeypoor, which is within twelve miles of Cawnpoor, and there made overtures to the Nana. Having arranged the terms for entering his service, they set about the destruction of their officers. These were seated outside their tents in the afternoon, when a party of the riflemen of the 48th and of the troopers approached and fired a volley into them. Burmester, Farquharson, and Norman Martin, fell slain. Boulton seized his horse, assisted his wounded commander, Staples, to mount behind him, and galloped off. He was pursued and fired upon by the mutineers, and Captain Staples fell from the horse killed. Boulton made good his escape into Cawnpoor, and threading his way at night through the lines of the mutineers, sought Wheeler's intrenchment. Early in the gray dawn of the following morning, a single horseman was seen by the beleaguered garrison to approach. The possibility of its being an European did not at first occur to them, and he was fired upon. Presently he was recognised, and welcomed into that sad scene of hopeless suffering and endurance. And there in a few days he found a grave.

Towards the end of May, some slight defensive works were began about the Residency and adjacent compounds; but they were slight, and confined to the most exposed positions, and were chiefly intended as a protection against any insurrectionary movement by the city people. The remainder of Ashe's battery, under Lieutenant Bryce, was also brought up from the cantonment, and placed in the Post-office compound, completely commanding the Treasury and its guard.