In such a way was the evacuation of the Residency of Lucknow effected, after enduring a close siege of 87 days, during which the enemy were always within pistol-shot; a further period of 60 days elapsed after the arrival of Generals Havelock and Outram, when the enemy were driven back on two sides of the position. In all 147 days of siege without parallel in history. "The story of Cawnpore is, alas! more tragical; but for the great qualities of the heroic and the enduring, Lucknow may well challenge human history to furnish a higher example, especially when we remember the number of women Who were here shut up, and how nobly they bore themselves amid risk and sufferings which only Christian women of our Anglo-Saxon race could bear to the bitter end, and yet emerge from them all in moral triumph."
B.—BANQUETING-HALL.
(General Hospital.)
This building was the banqueting-hall for the British Resident at the King of Oudh's Court; but from the commencement of the siege it was converted into a hospital. It was two-storied, with very large and lofty rooms on the upper storey: it stands on the same level with the Residency, and, having numerous large doors and windows, suffered much from the enemy's bullets and shot: the openings on the exposed sides (east and south) were closed, and protected with tents and other materials.
On the 8th July the Reverend Mr. Polehampton was severely wounded, in one of the rooms on the south side, by a rifle ball fired from Johannes' house, by "Bob the Nailer," a nickname for the African Rifleman, who shot many a man in the early days of the siege, and who was stopped in his career by a mine begun from La Martiniere post, and passing under Johannes' house, blew up the latter, thus relieving the garrison of a most deadly fire from which we had suffered.(vide para 75).
The north-east line of defence, from the hospital to the Redan, was garrisoned by the 71st and 48th Native Infantry, under command of Captain Strangways and Colonel Palmer, respectively. Fora description of the scenes of suffering which occurred in this building, and the heroism of many delicately nurtured ladies in attending to the wounded and dying, I must refer the reader to Rev. Mr. Polehampton's book and Mrs. Harris' Diary of the Siege of Lucknow.
During the siege the Rev. Father Bernard, R. C.
