Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-11-29

nearly five months that they would
break In. You must remember it
was LOGO against 10000, and for
the latter part of the time
it was 900 against 10000, and
the Residency and the earthworks
around it were not put up for such an
attack 1t was only from the mercy
of God that we were not massacred
soon after the besiegement. We were
resolved not to allow ourselves to get
into the hands of those desperadoes.
You must remember that we and all
the women had heard of the butchery
at Cawnpore, and we knew what de-
feat meant If unable to hold out 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
those awful months" Then we
crossed over and went down into the
cellar of the Residency. With shud-
der of horror indescribable l entered
the cellars where 622 women and
children had been crowded until the
whole floor was full. KNEW the ex-
act number, for counted their names
on the roll. As one of the ladies wrote
in her diary-speaking of these women,
she said: "They lay upon the floor
fitting into each other like bits in a
puzzle" Wives had obtained from
their husbands the promise that the
husbands would shoot them rather
than let them fall into the hands of
these desperadoes. The women within
the Residency were kept on the small
est allowance that would maintain
life. No opportunity of privacy. The
death angel and the birth angel
touched wings as they passed. Flies,
mosquitoes, vermin in full possession
of the place, and these women in
momentary expectation that the en-
ragged savages would rush upon them,
in violence of which club, and sword,
and torch, and throat Lifting 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 sol
diery. The waited on the wounded
and dying in the hospital. They gave
up their stockings for holders of grape
shot. They solaced each other when
their children died. When a husband
or father fell such prayers of sympathy
were offered as only women can offer.
They endured without complaint.
They prepared their own children for
burial. They were inspiration for the
men who stood at their posts fighting
till they dropped.
Our escort told us that again and
again news had come that Havelock
and Outram were on the way to fetch
these besieged ones out of their wretch
edness. They had received a letter
from. Havelock rolled up in a quill and
carried in the mouth of a disguised
messenger, letter telling them he
was on the way, but the next news
was that Haveloch had been compelled
to retreat. 1t was constant vacilla-
one day they heard the guns of relief
sounding nearer and nearer. Yet all
the houses of Lucknow were fortresses
filed with armed miscreants, and
every step of Havelocl> and his army
was contested-fring from house tops;
firing from windows; firing from door
ways.
"Show us where they came in" 1 ex-
claimed, for L knew that they did not
enter through the gate of the Residen-,
cy, that being banked up inside to
keep the murderers out. Here it is"
answered the escort, Here it is-the
embrasure through which they came"
We walked up to the spot. 1t is now
a broken down pile of bricks dozen
yards from the gate. Long grass now,
but then blood-spattered, bullet
Scared opening in the wall.
AS we stood there, although the
scene was thirty-seven years ago,
saw them come in; Havelock, pale and
sick, but triumphant; and Outram,
whom all the equestrian statues in Cal
cutta and Europe can not too grandly
present
What then happened?" said to my
escort. "Eh," 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-covered and enough blood and
wounds on their faces to make them
unacceptable, snatched the babes
out of their mothers arms and kissed
them, and passed the babies along for
other soldiers to kiss, and the wounded
men crawled out of the hospital to
join in the cheering, and it was wild
jubilee, until the first excitement
passed, the story of how many of the
advancing army had been slain on the
way began to have fearful effect, and
the story of suffering that had been
endured inside the fort, and the an
nouncement to children that they were
fatherless, and to wives that they were
widows, submerged the shouts of joy
with wailing of agony"
But were you not embarrassed by
the arrival of Havelock and 1,4OO men
who brought no food with them?" He
answered, "Of course, we were put on
smaller rations Immediately in order
that they might share with us, but we
knew that the coming of this reinforce
ment would help us to hold the place
until further relief should come. Had