The Press.
London, England, 1858-05-01 00:00:00

THE CAPTURE OF LUCKNOW.

The full details we have received this week of the
capture of Lucknow confirm the opinion that this
great success has been achieved by air Colin Camp-
bell with very trifling loss, and that the result of his
vicbry will materially tend to the rapid pacification
of Oude. Operations commenced on the 10th of
March, and a three days bombardment, a spec'es of
feu (Pettier, being poured upon the rebels, cowed them
considerably. Large numbers lied the city at the close
of the first day ; and when their carefully loophole('
poselon was turned on the 14th, and the Imam-
barrah and Kaiserbagh captured in an hour, they
became completely dishearter.ed. The labour, of
three months were lost to them; their hearts failed
them; attacked with gallantry they gave way on all
points, and by the evening of the 14th our troops wen(
in " solid occupation " of the key of their position, and
the rebels pouring out of the city in such numbers i
that a powerful brigade of cavalry was despatched n
pursuit to cut up the fugitives. On the llith the
Mohtee Math], the ;111.en-honae, and the Residency

were occupied by onr troops, and by the morning of
the 17th Sir Cohn Campbell was in complete posses-
sion of the city and of 117 guns belonging to the
rebels.

Six such days were, of course, not without incident.
The first of importance was the assault and capture
of the Begum's Palace on the evening of the 11th.
The Begum Ka Mahnl was a strongly intrenched
position. It was earned by Sir James Outram at the
point of the bayonet in a few minutes. The next
morning Sir Cohn rode over the ground, and
inspected his acquisition closely :

A high wall, forming the outer barrier, loopholed at
every In • oh inclosed the building all round, but it bore
frequent marks of our cannon. In front of this wall there
was a high parapet of earth with a deep scarp and ditch
some fifteen or sixteen feet deep, and two small bastions
with embrasures for two guns, which swept the approaches
to the place, or were intended to do so. The embrasures,
however, had been beaten into ragged holes, choked up
with sand and timber by the tire of our guns. Just in front
of us, within some eighteen or twenty yards of the ditch,
there was a large hole in the ground, caused by a mine
which the sepoys sprang when it was too late to do them
any good or us any harm. In the ditch itself there lay a
heap of the dead bodies of the enemy, which our men were
dragging out of the palace and flinging over the trench.
The enemy had literally dug their own graves. As we
crossed the narrow ramp of earth leading to the gateway
we could not but feel astonishment at the small loss by
which we had gained such a position. Along the front of
this wall, in addition to the guns, there were loopholes for
at least 2,000 muskets, and it seemed scarcely possible to
effect an entrance at the point where one portion of the
Ord and of the Sikhs had rushed through, with bayonets
at the charge, on the astounded foe. The gateway to
wide!' the ramp led was protected by loopholed turrets at
the sides, and by a considerable fire from the walls of the
place. The breach made by our guns was on our left of
the gateway, but when our troops entered it was only to
find themselves in front of a similar wall, directly under
the fire of the enemy, who were concealed from them at
half.pistol shot. The onlj way of getting at the enemy was
by a hole, miscalled a breach, and so narrow and low that
not more than cue man could enter at a time, and then
only by bending his head. But to avail themselves even
of this mode of entrance our men had to struggle through
the outer breach or to clamber up the steep bank of the
ditch, where, impeded by their numbers in the narrow
space, they made for the inner breach ; they were held in
check under the enemy's fire till some of them forced
their way in through the bricked-up windows, which led
them into small dark rooms, filled with sepoys. Held by
such troops as those who assaulted the place, the Begum's
Palace would have been impregnable to infantry. Entering
with difficulty through the suffocating breach, rank with
hot air, gunpowder, and dead bodies, I passed into the first
of the courtyards in which the fight took place. It was
filled with exulting Highlanders, still flushed with the
heat of victory, and Sikhs burning gold and silver tissue
and lace for the sake of the metals. General Lugard,
seated in the midst of them, was busy giving orders to •
group of officers, and first among those 1 came across was
Leith Hay, leaning on the javelin of one of the Begum's
state servants, and full of the incidents of the charge, in
which he bore no small part, for he was, I believe. the
second or third man who entered through the breach in the
gateway. Brigadier Adrian Hope, an excellent and gallant
officer, was also there, and he pointed out to me the
narrow window through which he had leaped in upon the
enemy. How a man could have escaped who entered in
such a faskion is beyond my comprehension. Hut there
were few slain outright, for the apparition of these
brawny soldiers alone unnerved the hands of their enemies.
Many fled at once, and were pursued and shot down in the
courtyards without offering a resistance ; others fired their
makets or matchlocks once, made a wild thrust with the
bayonet, and ran also; others, surprised in holes and
corners, fought with the ferocity of wild beasts. One
officer of the Wird killed with his own hand eleven sepoys,
whom lie shot with his revolver or sabred in the cou-rt-
yard.—Tirres cer.

Some of the rooms in this palace were veritable
"Chambers of Horrors ;" the cotton clothing of the
rebels had caught fire, and had burned the wearers
alive:—

The matches of the men and the discharges of their guns
set fire to their cotton clothing ; it is fed by the very fat of
their dead bodies ; the smell is pungent and overpowering,
and nsuieous to a degree. I looked in at two such rooms,
where, through the dense smoke, I could see piles of
bodies, and I was obliged to own that the horrors of the
hospital at Sebastopol were far exceeded by what
Witnessed.

The Secunderctbagh, which was taken on the 14th,
presented even a more horrible spectacle:—
I never recollect encountering any odour so disgusting
and intolerable as that which assailed our nostrils on
aPProaching the northern side of this inclesure. The
ground was covered with grinning skulk and fragments of
burnt skeletons. It wus a veritable Golgotha. In this
81)54 2,000 sepoys met a terrible punishment for their
"Ines. The most callous of men in smell and sight roust
have been glad to leave the place, and the officers declared
to us that they could not keep the men on that side of the
spare.--/b.

The miserable inhabitants between the combatants
"offer ail the horrors such a neutral position inevit-
ably entails :

Here an I there some wounded wretch had crept away
to die, and one or two very miserable old women still