The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-02-15 00:00:00

THE SURVIVORS OF LUCKNOW

Not the least interesting of the sights in which the
Prince of Wales has participated during his sojourn in
India, has been a review of the survivors of the horrible
seise of Lueknow during the ludian Mutiny. It is thus
graphically described by • correspondent :
The City of Lucknow stands upon a vast plain. Still
standing is the house where the soldiers wives and chil-
dren found shelter. It is strong and omissive, but its
walls were an insufficient protection, the women, when
the fire was hot—that is to aay, generally—living in some
very lofty underground cellars. These are spacious, and
at the present time cool, lighted by some semicircular
openings near the top. But what awful sufferings were
endured within its walls ! Here, huddled together, were
the strong and the ailing, women sinking from anxiety,
fear, cholera, andt dysentery, children dying from insuffi-
cient food and poisoned air. Even here they were not
safe; stray shots would find their way through the open-
, tugs above, for these were necessarily kept open to give
sowe light and ventilation to those within. The Beguni
' Kotle, too, is standing—hero the ladies of the garrison
lived and suffered, here not a few died. There was no
underground cover here, and in spite of sandbags and
barricades the shots found their way in, for doors must
remain open for egress and ingress. There is something
else, something more sacred than all. In a hollow in the
projection behind the Residency is • pretty cemetery.
Here lies Sir Ilenry Lawrence, with his epitaph, his own
last words, "who tried to do his duty ;" here lie • hoot of
brave men, of gentle women, and of little children, who
died in that fearful time. Their graves are carefully
tended, the roses of their native land grow brightly
thereon, alike round the monuments raised by regiments
half whose strength fell in the campaign, and round the
smaller stones which tell of private loss: of how, perhaps,
some gallant young officer fell first, his face to the foe,
and how, perhaps days, perhaps weeks after, his young
wife and baby child followed him —a touching record, a
record of grief and pain and suffering and death, a record,
too, of bravery and devotion and heroism, such as the
world has never Wen 111111)111011,d.

•
" Dr. Fairer, too, stood ciao by the Prince, and was
able to say • few words to explain the special deeds of
such of his old comrades in trial as Lad especially
distinguished themselves. The three European officers
Came first, and with them the Prince shook hands
cordially ; then raise the native officers still in the army;
then the rest of the survivors. It was, from tirst to last,
one of the most touching sights I ever witmeascel. What
spark.. 4 of iiiii ry inut bare noilif.si through the mind of
each as he advaucesi towards the Prince of the Ilays when,
amidst the whizzing of balls, the rush of cannoieballs, the
roar and rattle of artillery and musketry, and the yells of
a multitude of foes, he had clasped his rifle firmly in that
lettered guardhouse and ruined gate, and hail fired till
the barrel got too hot to the touch, and the very ground
was piled with the bodies of the assailants. The native
officers advanced, one by one, with a free, proud military
leering, remarkable as having ao trace either of mechanical
stolidity on the one hand, or of swagger upon the other.
These northern troops are infinitely liner men than are
the Hungarians, but their carriage and bearing remind me
far inure of Hungarians troops than of those of any other
nation. Each as he stood before the Prince saluted, and
then held out his sheathed sword with both hands. The
Prince touched the hilt in token of recognition of fealty.
The officer then saluted again and passed on. Then came
the natives who had left the army, some in the uniform of
the corps they had last served in—old, worn uniforms,
sitting but ill now upon the shrunken forma but having
upon their bosoms the medals of half-a-dosen Indian
campaigns. Others were in purely native dress. These
were generally old men, so old that the uniform they once
bore so jauntily had long since fallen to pieces. Some
were very old—so hold that they hobbled past on staffs, or
were supported past by their companions, or, in one
instance, bad lost the use of their legs altogether, and
came past on their arms, swinging their body between
them. it stranger leKe never did a Prince hold, nor •
more affecting one. These old and crippled men, who to
painfully filed past their future Sovereign, had been, each
and every one, a hero. All that unflinching courage,
heroic determination, and • loyalty beyond all proof could
do, these men had done. Some of these men were well-
to-do, had left the service at a time when the flush of
admiration and gratitude were still high, and had been
rewarded by gifts of land, or by lucrative positions. Others
were evidently very poor, and many of them presented
petitions as they passed. They all had pensions, it is true'
but the time of danger over, the pensions had by • cold
officialism been calculated according to a rigid account of
weeks and months of service, and no extra pension had
been awarded for their fidelity at a moment when fidelity
was beyond all price. Now that the Prince has himself
seen the remnant of • band of heroes, I trust that their
caw will be again considered, and that a pension will be
awarded to every defender of the walls of Lucknew
cent to enable bin to live in comfort in a country where
the necessities of life are cheap indeed. The appearance
and evident poverty of some of these men were enough to
hrin the blush of shame in the cheek of every unofficial
Pngmshmen who looked on at the scene.