I have mentioned the publication of my book. It was, of course, an era in my life. With what young author has it not been such? The copies came up from Calcutta, and were speedily unpacked and distributed to the subscribers. And then for a time I was in Paradise: I felt as if the World's eyes were upon me. "AN AUTHOR IN THE RANKS!" "A rara avis!" "Well, well!" "He has, at least, meant well. He ought to be promoted!" "We must see what can be done for him." So, I supposed, talked the officers. As to my comrades, now that my thoughts were actually in print, they

and persuaded them to return. Meanwhile, on the 6th, General Wheeler, the commandant, and all other Europeans at the station-numbering from 750 to 1000, including every rank, both sexes, and all ages, of whom about 400 only were able to carry arms-came within the entrenchments; which, however, were of the poorest character. The Nana, throwing off all disguise, now attacked them with a powerful and brisk cannonade, which was kept up without cessation for three weeks. The horrors endured by the besieged were frightful: intense heat, want of water, want of sleep, toil. watching, wounds, death. The enemy were kept at bay; but with great loss of life to the defenders. Many died from sunstroke, and women and children, as well as fighting men, were struck down by bullets. By June 26th the position of the besieged became untenable, and they capitulated under promise of protection; the Nana agreeing to send them to Allahabad. The next day they marched to the river-side, and got into the boats at what is now known as Massacre Ghat; but before they could push off, they were fired on from all sides. Two boats only got under weigh. One of these was immediately swamped by a round shot; the other went down the river under fire from both banks, and most of the Europeans were killed. A few escaped for awhile to Shiorajpur, some were captured, and the remainder massacred (except four); the soldiery in the boats were mostly shot upon the spot; the women and children were carried back to Cawnpore. Havelock, who had been dispatched to the scene of action, was at hand. At the first sound of his guns-it was July 15th-the unhappy ladies and their little ones were, by the Nana's orders, cut to pieces and thrown into the well adjoining the premisesthe Assembly Rooms, where they had so often joined in social festivities. From that well some two hundred bodies were afterwards taken.

Havelock took Cawnpore by storm on July 16th; the 17th and 18th were devoted to the recovery of the city, and the 19th to the destruction of Bithoor and the palaces of the Nana (who had fled). On the 20th Havelock advanced from Cawnpore to Oude, but returned for reinforcements on August 10th. Soon after Outram arrived, and went on with Havelock to the relief of Lucknow. In November the Gwalior rebels attacked Cawnpore, obtained possession of it, and held it till Clyde, or December 6th, utterly routed them. The district, however, was not completely pacified till the following May. In the closing days of 1859, wher the last remnants of the rebels disappeared over the frontiers of Oude, the Nana was among the fugitives. His death was reported some time afterwards.

A Memorial Church, whose interior is covered with marble tablets, bearing lists of names-a Romanesque building, with graceful campaniles-now marks the site of General Wheeler's entrenchment; while the scene of the

(doubtless) regarded me as a kind of curiosity, and were perhaps a little proud of me. "There was no knowing" (I thought) "what might come of it." And it certainly brought me into notice. It was the means of introducing me to General Sir Joseph Thackwell, Commandant of Cawnpore;" to General Archibald Watson, Commandant of Allahabad; and to other men of high position and influence. There was no knowing what would come of it.

But-great events were at hand, and to all this there came a rude interruption.

massacre is marked by the Memorial Public Gardens. Over the fatal wellin the centre of the Public Gardens-a mound has been raised, the summit of which is crowned by an octagonal Gothic enclosure, with a white marble angel by Marochetti in the centre. To the left, on the very spot where the massacre took place, is a small cemetery full of memorials to the victims, overgrown with lovely creepers and roses and other flowers. Near this is another cemetery, enclosed by iron railings and gates, and overgrown with flowers, where lie interred the officers and soldiers who fell in battle here. The text is frequent on the tombs, "THESE ARE THEY WHICH CAME OUT OF GREAT TRIBULATION."

* Sir Joseph will be remembered as an officer of splendid character. He served under Sir John Moore at Corunna, and at Waterloo lost his left arm and had two horses shot under him. "On receiving the first wound, in the forearm, he seized his bridle with his mouth and dashed on at the head of his men to charge the enemy." I was not a little proud of being received by such a man. He commanded the cavalry in the first Afghan War, gallantly led the 3rd Dragoons at Sobraon, and occupied a conspicuous place in the Sikh war and the conquest of the Punjaub.

CHAPTER X.

THE ARMIES OF RESERVE AND OF AFGHANISTAN.

A

GREAT THUNDER-CLOUD HAD BURST OVER INDIA. Intelligence had been received from Afghanistan that the British forces in that country (which after taking Ghuznee had been left in Cabul by the expedition sent thither in 1838, to replace on the throne, in lieu of his rival, Dost Mahommed-who appeared to have been intriguing against us our protégé, the ex-King Shah Shoojah), had been overtaken by calamity; that Cabul itself was in open insurrection; that Sir Alexander Burnes (who was about to become our Envoy), and other Officers, had been murdered; and that General Sale (who had been directed to conduct back to India a portion of the army no longer, as it was thought, required in Afghanistan), had with difficulty, and not without considerable loss, forced his way to the frontier town of Jellalabad, the dilapidated fortress of which he had taken by surprise from the Afghans, had occupied, and was strengthening against the enemy who were hovering around it. Post after post continued to arrive with bad tidings: the assassination of Sir William Macnaghten (our envoy and minister †) and Captain Trevor, his attaché; the imprisonment of Colonel Lawrence; and the almost hopeless and desperate state of the British force remaining in Cabul; subsequently, news of a convention by which we were bound, after having given up

* See pages 30, 31.

+"William H. Macnaghten was a Charterhouse boy, who, from the day he landed in India, first as a cadet and then as a civilian, mastered the several languages south and north, proved the most extraordinary scholar in the classical tongues ever turned out by Fort William College, and was trusted by Lord William Bentinck beyond any other secretary. His evil policy and sad fate in Cabul make his fate most tragic."-Life of Dr. Duff.

most of our guns and all our treasure, and leaving some of our officers as hostages, to evacuate Afghanistan; then, an awful silence; and then the overwhelming intelligence that

THE WHOLE RETIRING ARMY HAD BEEN ANNIHILATED BY

THE ENEMY, except one European officer, Dr. Bryden, who (wounded and half-dead from fatigue and privation) had arrived, and two native camp followers with him, at Jellalabad, the only relic of a force of 11,000.* SUCH A CATASTROPHE WAS UNPARALLELED IN OUR HISTORY. (It subsequently appeared that Lady Macnaghten, Lady Sale, and other officers' wives and children, with several of the ladies' husbands, who had been invited to accompany them into captivity, and some few non-commissioned officers and their families, had been taken prisoners and carried into the interior of Afghanistan.) Lord Auckland and the whole European community in India were overwhelmed with grief and disappointment at the news of this terrible disaster. His lordship, however, at once

A truly dramatic account of the garrison of Jellalabad from this time till that of their relief by General Pollock, is given by Mr. Edwards in his "Reminiscences of a Bengal Civilian ":-"I afterwards heard from some of the bravest among that 'illustrious garrison,' that their feelings of gloom and depression were almost beyond endurance; unable, as they were, to render any effectual assistance, or even to ascertain the truth of what had occurred in the retreat. By day, parties of horse were sent out from the fortress to proceed as far as was possible on the Cabul road, in the hopes of picking up stragglers; but they returned evening after evening bringing none. For many nights blue lights were burnt and rockets sent up, and the bugles sounded at intervals, in the hope of attracting the attention of some poor fugitives, and directing them to a place of safety. But all in vain; and at last the wailing notes of the bugle, so ineffectually sounding now and then through the darkness, and breaking the stillness of the night, were found to have such a depressing effect on the mass of the garrison, that the practice was obliged to be discontinued. Happily, soon after, the attention and energies of the officers and men were fully occupied in taking measures for their own defence; as the enemy, having now no force to contend with in Cabul, crowded to Jellalabad and besieged the fortress. How nobly the garrison defended themselves, and maintained the honour of their country, until relieved by General Pollock on April 16th, 1842, are matters of history."

"Friday, December 10th, 1841.-Never was anything equal to the consternation throughout India at the tragedy in Cabul. Lord Auckland and the Council were sitting till near midnight on Friday, and Lord Auckland and Miss Eden were walking by moonlight afterwards on the roof of Government House, to calm their minds, till one in the morning. The Burmese war, or the Nepaulese, was nothing to this. January 8th, 1842. There is an overwhelming report that our army in Cabul has capitulated. Lord Auckland is thin, low, and dejected. January 22nd.The appalling tidings of the murder of Sir W. H. Macnaghten have filled

issued a General Order, in which he spoke of the calamity as a “partial reverse," and as giving "only a new occasion for displaying the ability and vigour of the British power, and the admirable spirit and valour of the British-Indian army." Yet Lord Auckland does not appear to have followed up this proclamation with any practical measures. Indeed, there seems, unhappily, to be no doubt that his lordship came to the resolution, and issued secret orders, to recall all our forces, to evacuate every part of Afghanistan, and to trust to negotiation and money for the liberation of the prisoners, leaving our disgrace unremedied, our prestige broken.* But meanwhile the Home Government had superseded Lord Auckland † by the appointment (on October 23rd, 1841) of Lord Ellenborough, then President of the Board of Control, who had occupied that position under the administration of the Duke of Wellington, whose confidence he possessed, and who had denounced the war as a blunder and a crime. Lord Ellenborough arrived on February 28th, 1842. On his way, his attention had been arrested at Madras by a rising mutiny among the sepoys, with which he had to deal; and on his

and

all Calcutta with fear and astonishment. I met at the Asiatic Society in the evening. They were thunderstruck: never anything like it had occurred in India."-Life of Bishop Wilson.

It is said, however, that a few days before the arrival of his successor, Lord Auckland had furnished General Pollock with instructions that, while providing for the safe withdrawal of the force at Jellalabad, he was to consider it "one of the first objects of his solicitude to procure the release of British officers and soldiers, and their families and private servants and followers, who were held in captivity."

A man of kind heart, amiable manners, good intentions, and solid understanding, he left behind him no personal enemies and many friends. It is, however, by his Afghan policy that Lord Auckland's statesmanship must be judged, and the fruits of that policy were equally hurtful to his own fame, his country's honour, and the finances of our Indian Empire.-Trotter.

The following touching notice of Lord Auckland's departure is given by Bishop Wilson in his journal: "Saturday, March 12th.-I have accompanied Lord Auckland to the ship. At half-past six in the morning the gentry all assembled at Government House. The new Governor-General was then in full dress. The Misses Eden went off first in carriages, with tolerable self-possession. In about half an hour Lord Auckland descended the splendid flight of steps, conducted by the Governor-General, who, after reaching the lower step, took his leave. Lord Auckland, the members of council, judges, and myself, then walked leisurely through the superb files of troops, preceded by the four hundred splendid servants of the establishment in their scarlet attire, to the ghat at the riverside. Tears filled his eyes when he finally shook hands with us. An immense crowd,