with their loads to Delhi; from the Punjab treasuries the sinews of war were furnished. Men were raised by tens of thousands to replace the Sepoys-raised, indeed, in such numbers that-as constantly comes out in Lawrence's correspondence the dread was for a long time never absent from his mind lest this might be overdone, and new danger might arise from the Punjabis becoming conscious of their strength."* What wonder, then, that in England as in India, where it was admitted that the fall of Delhi broke the neck of the insurrection, all men who knew the circumstances of the case, who knew how he had to stimulate laggards, † strengthen faint hearts, overcome jealousies, sweep away obstructions" all greeted Sir John Lawrence by acclamation as the man who had done more than any single man to save the Indian Empire"? And justly. For had the great and warlike Sikh nation, in the midst of which Lawrence stood like a lion at bay, risen against the British raj, "all would have been lost save honour." He saw, in fact, that the Khálsa banner must be carried into our own lines, otherwise it would be swept into the lines of the enemy; and it was this inspiration of genius that really saved India. Delhi fell before the attacks of the reinforced army, after six days' fighting, on the 20th of September, and on the 21st the Mogul king was captured by Captain Hodson ("Hodson of Hodson's Horse"), who next day shot, with his own hand, his two sons, and hung up their bodies in the most public place in the city.§ The fall of Delhi was not the end, but the beginning of the end, of the Mutiny. Oudh had to be recovered, and if it be said that Lawrence captured Delhi, it is but right to say that Canning wrested Oudh from the grasp of the insurgents. His position in Calcutta was an embarrassing one. A terrible panic had paralysed those round him. Though they seemed able to do nothing but clamour for vengeance and for blood; yet in the whirlwind of their passion Canning stood "steadfast as a pillar in a storm." He was one of those who at such a moment "attain the wise indifference of the wise" to everything save the paramount demands of practical duty. He sent to Bombay, Madras, and Ceylon for reinforcements. He intercepted at Singapore the force that was on its way to China to support Lord Elgin, who had been

† Whilst the siege was in progress, Wilson hau, “more than once," says Nicholson, in one of his letters to Lawrence, spoken of withdrawing the guns. Nicholson, who was the Roland and Hotspur of the war, and Lawrence's trustiest lieutenant, says of Wilson, "Had he carried out his threat I was quite prepared to have appealed to the army to set him aside and elect a successor.' Three days after penning that letter this fiery Bersekir fell mortally wounded, leading the stormers of the Cashmere Bastion. Wilson, feeling it difficult to maintain the occupation of the city, wanted to withdraw. When this was communicated to Nicholson, he turned on his death-bed, convulsed with passion, and exclaimed, "Thank God, I have yet strength enough to shoot that man!"

Life of Lord Lawrence, by R. Bosworth Smith, M.A., Vol. II., p. 225.

§ The king died in prison three months afterwards. Hodson's defence was that he feared a rescue. Lord Canning himself has described their conduct-especially that of the terror-stricken officers, "with swords by their sides"-as “disgraceful."-Life of Sir H. Lawrence, p. 575.

1857.]

FIRST RELIEF OF LUCKNOW.

735

sent to supersede Sir John Bowring,* and he armed Henry and John Lawrence with absolute power in Oudh and the Punjab. On the 23rd of May, Neill brought to Calcutta the first of the reinforcements from Madras. Havelock followed with two regiments from Persia, superseding Neill; and after him came Outram, who was to supersede Havelock and succeed Henry Lawrence as Chief Commissioner in Oudh. Outram, however, refused to deprive Havelock of the honour of relieving Lucknow, and accompanied him merely in his civil capacity. On the 17th, Havelock forced his way to the scene of the massacre at Cawnpore, where the sickening relics of Nana Sahib's crime were still visible. Onwards his Army of Vengeance swept with hungry hearts to Lucknow, which they entered on the 25th of September, after a great variety of perilous adventure. When the imprisoned garrison, who had long been listening with strained ears for the beat of the English drums, met their rescuers, the scene was inexpressibly touching. The Highlanders, usually the most stolid and least emotional of our troops, had become dangerously excited after they entered Cawnpore; and, in the engagements on the march to Lucknow, they had fought, contrary to their wont, more like savages than civilised men. But when they marched into Lucknow their hearts softened. Oblivious of discipline and decorum, they rushed from their ranks, shaking hands with the ladies, lifting up the little children in their brawny arms, and passing them along from hand to hand, to be pressed to rough and bearded lips. Outram now took over the supreme command; but, finding himself again surrounded by the enemy in overwhelming numbers, he decided not to withdraw from the city. Lucknow had therefore to be relieved again.

The death of Anson, and the startling development of the insurrection in midsummer, together with the pressing appeals of the Queen, roused the Cabinet to action. They sent out reinforcements, and on the 11th of July decided to appoint Sir Colin Campbell as Anson's successor. When asked by Lord Panmure when he could start, Campbell answered, laconically, "To-morrow;" and, as a matter of fact, with little more than the kit of a common soldier, the veteran did start next night.† On the 17th of August he arrived at Calcutta, and toiled without ceasing to organise an army. The greatest military historian of our time has said that Campbell had a genuine and natural love for war, and he was one of those whose hearts beat stronger in the hour of battle than at any other moment of their lives. But he loved victory better than combat; and when he fought, he fought to win. Hence the extraordinary pains he took with his preparations, and the time he spent, or, as some of his panic-stricken critics in Calcutta said, wasted, in making arrangements which would virtually guarantee success. It was not till the 27th of

* Elgin's patriotism and generosity in surrendering these troops were justly extolled by Sir William Peel, the leader of the Naval Brigade, who said that the Chinese Expedition really relieved Lucknow.-Walrond's Letters and Journals of Lord Elgin, p. 188.

+ Shadwell's Life of Lord Clyde, Vol. I., p. 405.

October that he left Calcutta. On the 9th of November he got to Cawnpore; and then by a brilliant forced march on the 12th he reached the Alumbaugh-a summer palace of the kings of Oudh-from which he was able to signal his arrival to Outram. A gallant civilian-Mr. Kavanagh-contrived,

in disguise, to make his way from Lucknow through the enemy's lines to the relieving force, and told the story of Outram's defence, an achievement,

as Lord Canning said, without a parallel in history, save Numantia and Saragossa. On the 14th Sir Colin Campbell moved on the city. On the 16th he attacked the chief stronghold of the rebels-the Secunder-baugh. The 93rd Highlanders and a regiment of Sikhs forced their way in through a narrow breach, and then, finding that the Sepoy garrison could not escape, they massacred them. The Highlanders here fought with uncontrollable ferocity, neither asking nor giving quarter. "Cawnpore, you--!" was the cry of rage with which each man drove his bayonet home into the heart of his foe; and, excited by their example, the Sikhs strove only too successfully to emulate the barbarity of their Scottish comrades. For three terrible hours did the men of the 93rd satiate their passion for vengeance; and when they emerged from the place with tartans soaked in blood, they left it packed high

1857.]

THE QUEEN'S LETTER TO SIR COLIN CAMPBELL.

737

and close with corpses-hardly a single rebel escaping to tell the tale. On the 17th of November Campbell had fought his way to the Residency, and Lucknow was rescued a second time.

The victory was hailed in England with pride and delight. The Queen sent a letter to Sir Colin Campbell, congratulating him. "The Queen," she writes, "has had many proofs already of Sir Colin Campbell's devotion to his Sovereign and his country, and he has now greatly added to that debt of gratitude which both owe him. But Sir Colin must bear one reproof from his Queen, and that is, that he exposes himself too much. His life is most precious, and she entreats that he will neither put himself where his noble. spirit would urge him to be--foremost in danger-nor fatigue himself so as to injure his health."* Her Majesty's caution was hardly needed. Sir Colin Campbell was a general who never exposed himself or his troops to unnecessary danger. But when necessary, he would spend his own and their blood as recklessly as if it were water. It has been noticed that his brilliant victories in India were all won with little loss of life. The explanation is that his plans were just the opposite of those pursued in the Crimea that is to say, he never wasted his men in futile assaults, or hurled them against fortifications bristling with cannon, till his own artillery-an arm in which he was always stronghad demoralised the enemy.

Having removed the women, children, sick, and wounded, Campbell retraced his steps to attack the rebel army concentrated at Cawnpore-his heart saddened, and the lustre of his triumph dimmed by the death of the heroic Havelock. At Cawnpore, General Windham, who commanded the rear guard, had foolishly allowed himself to be outflanked by Tantia Topee, a commander of great skill and courage. Windham's blunder not only gave the enemy possession of Cawnpore, but put the whole English force, whose communications were thus threatened, in the greatest peril. Campbell, by forced marches, came to the rescue on the 29th of November. Having sent on his convoy to Calcutta, he attacked the rebels, under Nana Sahib and Tantia Topee, on the 5th of December; and, on the 7th, there was not a vestige of the 25,000 insurgents composing the Gwalior army to be seen for miles round Cawnpore. year 1857 closed, it was felt that the worst of the crisis in India was over.

* Martin's Life of the Prince Consort, Chap. LXXXII.

† At Lucknow, after four days' hard fighting, he had only 122 killed and 414 wounded.

As the

Campbell's retreat from Lucknow to Cawnpore was managed with consummate address. But it was censured. The defence of it is this:—(1), He had to relieve himself from the encumbrance of the women, children, sick, and wounded; (2), He had to save his communications, which Windham's defeat at the Pandoo River had put at Tantia Topee's mercy; (3), He could easily come back and take Lucknɔw; and (4), He was anxious to make an immediate impression on Rohilkund.

Birth of Princess Beatrice-Death of the Duchess of Gloucester-A Royal Romance-Franco-Russian IntriguesThe Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester-Announcement of the Marriage of the Princess RoyalPrince Albert's Views on Royal Grants-The Controversy on the Grant to the Princess Royal-Visit of the Grand Duke Constantine-The Christening of Princess Beatrice-Prince Albert's Title as Prince Consort Legalised-The First Distribution of the Victoria Cross-Opposition to the Order-The Queen's Visit to Manchester-Departure of the Prince of Wales to Germany-The Queen and the Indian MutinyHer Controversy with Lord Palmerston-Sudden Death of the Duchess of Nemours-The Marriage of the Princess Royal-The Scene in the Chapel-On the Balcony of Buckingham Palace-The Illuminations in London-The Bride and Bridegroom at Windsor-The Last Adieus-The Departure of the Bride and Bridegroom to Germany.

It was when the country was passing through the crisis of Palmerston's "penal dissolution" that a Princess was added to the Royal circle-soon to be diminished by the migration of her eldest sister to a home of her own in a foreign land. The little Princess was born on the 14th of April, and in a letter to King Leopold the Queen says: "She is to be called Beatrice, a fine old name borne by three of the Plantagenet Princesses, and her other names will be Mary (after poor Aunt Mary), Victoria (after Mama and Vicky, who, with Fritz Wilhelm, are to be the sponsors) and Feodore."* On the 19th Prince Albert tells his stepmother that the Queen was already able to leave her room, and her recovery, therefore, could not have been retarded by the political excitement and agitation of the times.

As the month ended, however, sorrow fell on the Royal household. On the 30th of April the Duchess of Gloucester died-the "Aunt Gloucester" to whom the Queen and her husband in their letters make so many affectionate references. This Princess was the last child of George III., and of all his family the best beloved. The story of her life was in itself a romance, the pathos of which accounts for the Queen's frequent allusions to her nobility and unselfishness of character. During her girlhood at Windsor the Princess Mary, as she was called, won the hearts of the people by her quiet, unobtrusive philanthropic work among the poor. She and her cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, fell in love with each other, but when he attained the age of twenty-one their romance was cruelly and abruptly ended. The Princess Charlotte was born, and it was decreed that the Duke of Gloucester must remain single, so that he might marry her if no eligible foreign prince claimed her hand. The Princess Mary and the Duke of Gloucester waited in suspense for twenty weary years-for she refused to encourage any other suitor. In 1814 a rift appeared in this cloud that overhung their lives. The Prince of Orange, it was said, was about

* Martin's Life of the Prince Consort, Chap. LXXV. Feodore was the name of the Queen's half-sister.