The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-12-12

meant II uudDl0 10 uO1u OuG any
longer, we would have blown ourselves
up and all gone out of life together"
"Show me-" said, "the rooms where
the women and children staid during
these awful months" Then we crossed
over and went down into the cellar OF
the residency. With shudder of horror
indescribable I entered the cellars
where 6o2 women and children had been
crowded until the whole room was full
I know the exact number, for I counted
their names on the roll. AS one OF the
ladies wrote in her dairy-speaking OF
these women she said, "They lay upon
the floor fitting into each other like bits
in puzzle" Wives had obtained from
their husbands the promise that the hus-
bands would shoot them rather than
let them fall into the hands OF these
desperadoes. The women within tho
residency were kept on the smallest
allowance that would maintain life.
No opportunity of privacy. The death
angel and the birth angel touched wings
as they passed. Flies, mosquitoes, yer.
min in full possession of the place, and
these women in momentary expccta-
tion that the enraged sayages would
rush upon them, in violence Of which
club and sword and torch and throat
cutting would be the milder forms.
Our escort told US again and again OF
the bravery of these women. They
did not despair. They encouraged the
soldiery. They waited on the wound.
ed and dying in the hospital. They
gave up their stockings for holders Ut
the grape-shot. They solaced each
other when their children died. When
a husband or father fell such prayers
of sympathy were offered as. only wom-
en- can offer. They endured without
complaint. They prepared their own
children for burial. They were inspi-
ration for the men who stood at their
posts fighting till they dropped.
Our escort told US that again and
again news had come that Have.
lock- and Outram were on the way to
fetch these besieged ones out OF their
wretchedness. They had received
letter from Havelock rolled up In
quill and carried IN the mouth OF
disguised messenger, a letter telling
them he was on the way, but the next
news was that Havelock had been
compelled to retreat. It was constant
vacillation between hope and despair.
But one day they heard the guns OF re.
lief sounding nearer and nearer. Yet
all the houses Of Lucknow were fort
tresses filed with armed miscreants,
and every step Of Havelock and his
army was contested-fring from house,
tops, firing from windows, firing from
doorways.
I asked our friend If he thought that
the world famous story ofa Scotch lass
in her delirium hearing the Scotch bag
pipes advancing with the Scotch regi.
ment was true story. He said he did
not know but that It was true. Without
this mans telling me knew from my
own observation that delirium some
times quickens some of the faculties,
and rather think the Scotch lass In her
delirium was the first to hear the bag
pipes. Idecline to believe that class OF
people who would like to kill all the
poetry of the world and Danish all the
fine sentiment. They tell us that Whit
tiers poem about Barbara Freitchie was
founded on delusion, and that Long
fellows poems immortalized things
that never occurred. The Scotch lass
did hear the slogan. Ialmost heard it
myself as I stood inside the residency
while my escort told of the coming on
of the seventy-eighth highland regi-
ment-
"Were you present when Havelock
came IMP" I asked, for could suppress
the question no longer. His answer
came:
81 was not at the moment present, but
with some other young fellows saw
soldiers dancing while two highland
pipers played, and I said, What is all
this excitement?' Then we came
up and saw that Havelock was in, and
Outram was in and the regiments were
pouring In
"Show us where they came In" I Iex-
claimed, for knew that they did not
cutc6 GuEOuSA VIC B ho0N " SAASA SSA~~SSS
that being banked up inside to keep the
murderers out. "Here 1t is," answered
my escort. "Here it is-the embrasure
through which they came"
! We walked up to the spot. 1t is now
q broken down pile of bricks dozen
yards from the gate. Long grass now,
but then blood-spattered, bullet scar
red opening in the wall.
: As we stood there, although the scene
was thirty-seven years ago, I saw them
come in-Havelock pale and sick, but
triumphant, and outram, whom all the
equestrian statues in Calcutta and Eu-
rope can not too grandly present
"What then happenedP" said to my
escort. "Oh," he said, "that is impos-
sible to tell. The earth was removed
from the gate, and soon all the army of
relief entered, and some of us laughed,
and some cried, and some prayed, and
some danced. Highlanders so dust COW
cred and enough blood and wounds on
their faces to make them unrecogniza-
i11o eoo+obod fha ho hon ont Of heir