---

Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 9, p. 316.

3 r 6 CA WNPORE CITY miserable parapet 4 or 5 feet high, surrounding two long single-storeyed barracks, the whole enclosure' being but zoo yards square. On June z the fifty men who had come from Lucknow were sent back with fifty more of the Cawnpore garrison. During the night of June 4 the out- break began with the departure of the cavalry regiment, followed by the rst Infantry, and the next day by the other two regiments. In no case were the European officers injured, and a few men from all the regiments, mostly native officers, joined the English in their entrench- ments. The sepoys, after plundering the treasury and houses in the civil station and opening the jail, had started for Delhi ; but on June 6 the Nina, who had thrown off his too successful pretence of friendship, persuaded them to return. The European entrenchment contained be- tween q5o and r,ooo persons, of whom 40o were men able to bear arms. On June q the besiegers, who were subsequently reinforced and had as many as twelve guns, opened their attack in earnest ; but in spite of three general assaults on June rz, r8, and zg, failing stores, and difficulty in obtaining water, the defenders still held out. The Nāna then decided to have recourse to stratagem. He promised that our forces should be allowed to march out with arms, that carriages should be provided for those who could not march and for the women and children, and that boats properly victualled should be ready at the Sati Chaurā a~hāt to convey everybody to Allahābād. On the other hand, the entrenchtnents, treasure, and artillery were to be given up. Early on June a6 the evacuation began. Though every detail of the coming massacre had been carefully prepared and the fatal ghāt was surrounded by armed men and guns, the mutineers could not restrain themselves, and victims began to fall before they had entered the ambuscade. The majority were, however, allowed to embark, when a bugle sounded just as the boats were ready to start. For twenty minutes grape and bullets hailed on the boats, and only then did the enemy venture to come to close quarters. Every man caught was killed, and the women and children were taken to the Savāda Koth3, where their number were shortly increased by the inmates of a boat which had got away, but was subsequently captured. In the meantime, Havelock had been advancing up the grand trunk road, and he defeated the Nāna's brother and entered Cawnpore District on July r 5. The same night five men armed with swords entered the Bibļghar, to which the women and children had been removed, and hacked and slashed till all were left for dead. Next morning the bodies of the dead and a few children who had survived were thrown into a well in the com- pound. 1'he well is now surrounded by a stone screen, and over it is a pedestal on which stands a marble figure of an angel by Marochetti. A large area round it was enclosed at the expense of the town, and ' A Memorial Chureh now stands near the site of the entrenclment.