The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 12, 1857.

Department. Having been dismissed from his office by
Major Sleeman on account of his dishonesty and general
bad character, this seed of the Wicked One came to Capt.
Skene, fell at his feet, and, weeping bitterly, protested his
innocence, swearing at the same time that he and his
family had not eaten bread for several days. As his half.
starved, miserable looks bore witness in some degree to his
statement, Capt. Skene, whose kind and benevolent heart,
now before Allah, was known to every one, took compas•
sion on him, and be appointed him darogha (gaoler).
Will you, can you, believe that at the above critical june.
tare this monster liberated all the prisoners in his custody,
furnished them with offensive and defensive weapons,
placed himself at their head, forced his way into the fort,
and there massacred every European. For his kind bens•
factor, Capt. Skene, he reserved unutterable agony, not
giving him the fatal stroke until lie hail first butchered
before his eyes his wife and two lovely boys, his sons—one
four, the other five years old. After this, having plundered
or destroyed whatever property he could find, he and his
accursed crew fled towards Delhi.
A terrible narrative is given by one writer of the
escape from Nowgong. The party consisted of
seventy-nine men, part of them some faithful sepoys,
and some forty women and children. The heat of
the sun was terrible ; some of the men lost th eir
senses, others fell dead from apoplexy; the women
sunk from exhaustion. Everywhere the party was
menaced or attacked by the villagers—nowhere was
a helping hand held out to them. One day they
adopted a curious ruse to get safely through a
town :

At noon the sergeant•major died before me in the most
awful way of apoplexy ; he fell as if struck, rose and fell,
and staggered. The major ere I reached had died of the
sun too. I had lost sight of some of my party. I went
slowly, and did all I could for them, but I was obliged,
the country being so hostile, to join the main body, and
save those on my horses. The sepoys were very glad
to see me; they feared I had been murdered, as Malwa;
Ewart had said I had entered it with him, and that we
had been fired at there, and that I had not come away.
He went in alone, when I was miles behind him. His
imagination was for a long time quite destroyed. For
the remainder of the day we moved on as a party of
officers escorted by rebel sepoys to be killed at Banda
by a Nawab. The ruse took, and we were allowed to
pass. We entered and passed through a large city. Then
were fed by it. I heard our men say, " They are great
people, the Sahibs; we must treat them as such, and
entertain them ere killing them." The citymen assented.
We had an opportunity tew have of knowing natives;
hundreds surrounded us as we sat on the ground and
ate chupattees and native sweetmeats. Not one said an
uncivil word. Some said our rule had been very just;
some expressed sorrow; some, it struck me, did their
utmost to gets few of us killed for the amusement of
the city. At length all cleared off, it being dark.
At length, after suffering incredible hardships and
privations, and miraculously escaping murder on
many occasions, the remnant of the party of refugees,
thinned by constant deaths, reached Chattepore in
safety.