say, but the noise and confusion which continued all night was something past belief; long strings of camels with great piles of tables, portmanteaus, tents, and chairs, which looked in the gloom like houses, on their backs; and elephants bearing, apparently, whole cities, kept on passing continually, and treading alarmingly near one's face. Camp-followers and others shouted without intermission, and it seemed without ever drawing breath, for their "bhaies" (friends or brothers) the long night through; and there was an individual called "Mattadeen," who seemed to be in the bonds of friendship and brotherhood with all the world, and to be "bhaie" in ordinary to humanity at large, judging from the constant cries of "Ho, Mattadeen! Mattadeen, h-0-0-0-0-0-0 !" which echoed through the darkness; these, and various other little noises, tended to sour one's temper and disturb one's rest. But at last, spite of baggage-animals, campfollowers, and Mattadeens, and of an undercurrent of snoring which was going on, I fell into a sound and delightful sleep.

CHAPTER XVI.

Attack on our Camp-Repulse of the Enemy-Outlying Picket -Advance of March 9th-Jungle Fighting-Horrida Bella! -Another glimpse of Lucknow.

At

ON the following morning, March 7th, while preparing to go on outlying picket, and fortifying the inner man by laying in as good a breakfast as time would permit, we were astonished by a sharp fire, which commenced in our front. first we imagined that it was only the pickets disporting themselves, and getting up a small fight on their own accounts, as pickets are ofttimes wont to do; but the sharp rattle of musketry becoming louder and nearer every moment, and then some shot coming whistling among our tents, warned us that something was really going on, and before many minutes were over an orderly came galloping down to tell us to

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turn out immediately," and move up to the front, as the enemy were attacking the camp in force. We got ready as soon as possible, and moved smartly up, but too late to take any part in this affair, in which our casualties were very few, but those of the enemy considerable.* It appeared

* Among our casualties must be included a few occasioned by the shot which the enemy sent into our camp; one, a man of the 1st Bengal Fusiliers, who lost his leg while in the act of "falling in."

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that the enemy had made a systematic, and, as it seemed at one period, a formidable attack, advancing with cavalry, infantry, and artillery, in very good style until checked by our pickets. Doubtless they expected that, on seeing them approach, the little handful of men who composed these pickets would have immediately bolted, and that so our camp would have fallen a surprised and easy prey. What, then, must have been their astonishment (possibly tinged with horror) when they beheld the pickets, instead of fleeing, extend themselves in skirmishing order, and boldly advance to meet them! This gave time for reinforcements to come up, and for the artillery to open a brisk cannonade on them, the result of which was that the Sepoys were almost immediately driven back, and pursued by our troops for some distance, while we extended our position by advancing our outposts a distance of half a mile or so.

It was during this pursuit that Major Percy Smith's body was recovered. But even respect for the dead is unknown

to our barbarous

enemies, and the body was found, as we feared it would be, with the head and legs severed from it and the trunk otherwise horribly mutilated.* During that day there was not much done; a good deal of desultory firing was kept up by the pickets, but beyond this little or nothing. We occupied ourselves by taking long shots at Pandy whenever he gave us a chance; and as we soon

* The Sepoys gave out, by way of advancing their interests, that it was the Commander-in-chief who had been killed, and that this was his body: such were the shifts to which they were obliged to have recourse.

OUTLYING PICKET.

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found out that we received our own shot back again, instead of the lumps of hammered iron, to which he ordinarily treated us, we changed our tactics, and favoured himself thenceforth with shell instead of solid shot.

Of course that night on picket we had innumerable alarms, for as long as there are soldiers in the world, so long will they insist, while on sentry, on dark nights, in the presence of an enemy, in mistaking cows, stumps of trees, dark bits of shadow, and the rustling of the wind through the long grass, for advancing foes. And so surely as they do will there be heard either the sharp crack of the alarmed sentry's rifle, or a hurried whisper of "Stand to your arms!" to rouse one from one's slumbers, when one jumps up, peers into the darkness for about ten minutes, momentarily expecting to hear the whistling of bullets, and eventually discovering that the approaching enemy existed only in the sentry's fevered ima. gination, upon which one lies down again, mentally consigning said sentry to a place unmentionable.

On one occasion that night, however, we were much surprised by hearing some sharp firing going on in our rear, and by bullets pinging past us, or falling at our feet. What could it mean? Could the enemy have got round us? Oh, moment of horrible suspense! it was pitch dark, nothing could be distinguished; we stood to our arms, and brought one of our guns into action to the rear, in order that we might be ready for them, and then set to work to discover the interpretation of this mystery. It transpired that our

supporting picket, some seven or eight hundred yards behind us, were suffering from nightmare, bad dreams, indigestion, or something which had deluded them into the idea that it was their bounden duty to fire a volley or two into us, which they did accordingly. Matters were, however, soon set to rights, nobody was hurt, and with a polite request that, if it was all the same to them, they would abstain from repeating the performance, we once more lay down, and were not further disturbed that night.

On returning to camp on the morning of March 8, we found that some siege guns had arrived from the other side of the river, and that preparations were being made for getting some of them into position that evening. In the afternoon, an order arrived for the greater part of the cavalry and horse artillery, and one field battery (Middleton's), to recross the river, to assist in the operations which were to take place on the morrow. In speaking of these operations, I can of course attempt only to describe those in which I personally took part, viz., those on the left bank of the river, so that my readers will have to look elsewhere for a detailed description of the performances of the troops under Sir Colin, whose movements I shall only refer to from time to time, in a general way, and wherever I may find such reference necessary to make the successive steps leading to the fall of the city clearly understood.

At daybreak, on March 9, the force under General Outram assembled on the ground occupied by our advanced pickets, and when all was