terrible and unequal conflict. The defenses of the Residency were hastily completed. Barricades were formed in all exposed situations, and it is marvelous to read the elements of which some of them were composed—mahogany tables and valuable furniture of all kinds, carriages and carts, the records of Government officers in large chests, boxes of stationery, and whatever could be laid hold of and piled up, to cover from the enemy's fire or stop a bullet. Even Captain Hayes's famous library, consisting of invaluable Oriental manuscripts, the standard literary and scientific works of European nations, and dictionaries of almost every language, were, for the nonce, converted into barricades.
These, with the other defenses which they had already prepared, were by no means strong, though the best they could extemporize. Their chief reliance was on the number of their guns, the quantity of their ammunition, and their owm courage, which they hoped the God of Hosts would crown with his blessing, till relief could reach them from Calcutta or from England.
Their enemies had taken possession of the houses deserted by the citizens, and were filling them with sharp-shooters, loop-holing the walls, and putting their numerous cannon in position all around the Residency, as near as they could come, a few of them being so close that they were not more than forty or fifty yards from the intrenchments around the buildings occupied by the Christians. This seems almost incredible, but I can vouch for its truthfulness from personal knowledge before the siege, and personal examination after it, while the battered and torn Residency is to-day its standing memorial. Each party spent a busy night, and next morning the iron messengers of death were flying back and forth in increasing numbers.
Let us pause here and note the respective strength of the parties in this fearfully unequal conflict, and the object for which each was about to fight. On the one side were part of an English regiment, one company of British artillery, a few hundred faithful Sepoys, with some English and European civilians; on the other, the whole army of Oude. But this fact is worthy of more detail.
