hundred of his small force in this fierce contest. It is believed that “in no action ever fought was the superior power of arrangement, moral force, personal daring, and physical strength of the European over the Asiatic more apparent” than in this case, for the rebels fought hard and well, but they had met far more than their match, and were terribly beaten. Thus, between the 7th and 16th of July, Havelock's men had marched one hundred and twenty-six miles, under an Indian sun, alternated with tropical rains; had fought four battles, and captured forty-four guns; yet their labors and sufferings were only beginning. Still their General trusted in God, and held that his soldiers' discipline was equal to their valor, and he resolved to push on and finish the work that was given them to do.
The wounded are gathered and cared for, the dead buried, and the weary heroes lie down on the soaking earth to rest and dream of the deliverance they will surely bring to-morrow to their beleaguered friends in Cawnpore. In the middle of the night a crash that shook the ground beneath awoke them—Nana Sahib had blown up the Cawnpore magazine. On the morning of the 17th the British marched into Cawnpore. A Eurasian with whom I am well acquainted, a Mr. Shepherd—the only living Christian in the district, and who escaped as by a miracle—rushed out from his hiding-place and joined them; he told them all, and led them to the house of blood! These men, who had charged to the cannon's mouth on the preceding day, sank down on the ground and wept like children at this spectacle of crime and suffering. Havelock's feelings of grief were inexpressible. Nana Sahib's butcheries were evidently a defiant challenge to a conflict of absolute extermination on the one side or the other: none could misunderstand his purpose.
Resting his weary and sorrowful troops for that day, on the 19th Havelock marched against Bithoor. But Nana Sahib had fled and crossed the Ganges, to get between Havelock and Lucknow, so as at least to delay his march till the Sepoys there could have time to copy the hideous infamy of which he had given them the example.
On the 20th General Neill, at Havelock's urgent request, had
