Maria Germon

“ The first news in the morning was, that a Native Pensioner had come in from Cawnpore, with tidings that a large body of Europeans were at Cawnpore, and that they had crossed ten guns; they had had three fights with the Nana, and had burnt his house. Every one believes this; and we may expect them by the first proximo. It is glorious news, indeed! The Pensioner was sent off again, with a letter, and only one rupee (as he himself requested) ; but, if he brings an answer, he is to have 500 rupees, and a double pension for life. ”

“ Another day without news. Firing sharp, during the night. Our only consolation is, that, no news is good news; for, if any reverse happened to our reinforcements, the enemy would quickly let us hear of it, and be back upon us immediately. A fine young man was shot to-day, at the 9-pounder, in our garden; he was shot through the lungs—he has left a wife and four children. Charlie came for his half-hour's visit, my only gleam of sunshine in the gloomy day. I had an enormous rat in my bedding when I unrolled it in the Tye Khana for the night. ”

“ The heat is fearful in tents by day—there are two or three companies of Europeans and some guns, and all the Native troops who remained staunch to us, encamped together; our treasure and regimental colours are saved; the former entirely by Mr. L——'s bravery. One is hearing now of the wonderful escapes some of the officers had that night; the only wonder is that so many escaped; numbers have lost their all. To continue. Mrs. F—— gave me a cup of tea: one's thirst is fearful in this intense heat and excitement; I contrived to send a cup down to Charlie. ”

“ Commencement of another month of the siege! Where will the 1st of December find us? It is coming to a crisis now. But the Almighty has spared us through so much danger, I trust He will bring us out of it; my hope now is strong! We had a quiet day; no news!
Monday, November 2nd. The enemy threw several shells. I went, notwithstanding, to Charlie's quarters, and had a cosy evening with him. On my return, as were sitting in the verandah, a letter came from Allum Bagh, and the General, after reading it, said, he must tell the ladies the good news. ”

“ There was no chance of sleeping down in this hot Babel, so I and several other ladies took our bedding up on the roof and slept there; it was a lovely moonlight night, and never shall I forget the scene. The panorama of Lucknow, from the top of the Residency, is [26] splendid; and down immediately below us, in the compound, we could see the great guns and all the military preparations; all, every instant, expecting an attack, and firing going on in the distance. ”

“ I had been obliged to get off my pony, as the sun was so powerful, and get into a hackery, and "squat" down on the straw, like most of the other ladies; but when we got to the ground, we had to hunt about for our baggage, the little we had brought with us. Luckily, Charlie got hold of our baggage hackery, and got down my charpoy for me to sit on; but it was bitterly cold, so that Mrs. B—— took her baby into some officer's tent till her own could be found. We had brought a little bread and meat in a cooking vessel—our day's rations; also tea and sugar. ”

“ Charlie could not come to see me, as he was on duty at one of the gates of the Muchee Bawun; there are five gates, and four officers to each gate. Charlie takes it morning and evening, while the others are at gun drill. All, nearly, are obliged to learn the gun drill from some Artillery Sergeant, to be ready if wanted. Our entrenchments, they say, are now very strong; we have several mortars, and two 18-pounders are placed at the entrance to the Cawnpore road. A reconnoitering party went out, and returned in the evening, saying there was not an enemy to be seen for miles round. ”

“ From the outside, you would not think the house at all habitable; and even the centre room, that Charlie occupies, has immense holes in the walls, made by round shot. He took me on the roof, as the enemy are too far off to be dangerous now: I could hardly tell which were the houses that had been occupied by the enemy, and which by us; there was merely a bamboo stockade between us, and the marvel is they never got in. I was told, "just down there, a 9-pounder was firing into us night and day, and a little further off a smaller one." Charlie's post was fired into sharply, day and night ”

“ About 2,000 men were seen to leave the City towards Cawnpore. In the evening, and at night, a number of hackeries followed, it is supposed, with their baggage. Prices are rising. Twenty rupees given for 2 lbs of sugar, and one rupee per leaf for tobacco.
Friday, September 11th. A tolerably quiet day, but discoveries made of "Light Infantry" where they ought not to be. Mrs. B——'s baby very ill; it has large ulcers all over its body, and inflammation in the throat. We destroyed two of the enemy's mines to day, and in one of them men were heard to screech. ”

“ It is most distressing that we cannot send them any troops; but if even we could spare them, they could never get across the river at Cawnpore, for the enemy have both sides of it; firing, both musketry and artillery, was heard all day in the district. The landowners are fighting amongst themselves, to get back what was taken from them at the annexation. A fire was seen burning in the district all night.
Sunday, June 21st. Rose at daybreak as usual, and went into the garden for a breath of air; the heat at night is fearful. Charlie came in at half-past 7 ”

“ We heard firing going on all the evening; it turned out to be an attack on the Dowlut Khana, but the rebels were repulsed, several shot, and others taken prisoners, who were afterwards hanged. Martial law is proclaimed now in Oude, so they are hanging several night and morning at the Muchee Bawun. About 7, Sir Henry came down from Cantonments with a large escort, and was received with great cheering; four more guns came down with him; every preparation was made, expecting an attack that night; every man was at his gun, and the slow matches lighted in readiness. ”

“ Then seventeen of us (some choosing to have their rations separate) have 15 lbs. of unsifted flour for our chupatties, 6 lbs. of gram to be made into dal (this is private store food, generally given to horses) , 1 lb. 12 oz. of rice, and a little salt. We generally make a stew of the meat and rice and a few chupatties, as [108] it goes farther; but I think the gentlemen generally get up from table hungry. We have still a little tea, but neither sugar, milk, wine, nor beer; our beverage is toast and water, a large jug of which is always placed on the centre of the table ”

“ I started frequently, fancying I heard the tramp of the mob coming; we had the two Padres up with us and they determined to watch by turns. Mr. P—— began; he had a double-barreled gun, pistol and sword, and walked round and round for two hours, and then awoke Mr. H——, but we could not help laughing, for Mr. H—— was so sleepy he told him he did not think there was any necessity for watching up there. I shall never forget the night; the moon and stars were so brilliant overhead, looking so peaceful in contrast to the scene below. ”

“ At 8 P.M. we started—all the baggage hackeries were to be stopped for us ladies to cross the bridge of boats; but in consequence of some of them having "dodged" into the line, it took us eight hours to do the three miles; fortunately, it was a splendid moonlight night; just as we were on the bridge of boats there was a sudden discharge of musketry, which greatly alarmed us. I thought for certain the enemy were going to attack us, but it turned out to be our own men firing in the entrenchment ”

“ Still no news! Firing, during the night, sharp. The enemy threw several shells, some of which exploded in the Begum Kotee; but, as yet, without injury to any one. Dear Charlie came and gladdened my heart. About sunset the shelling became very sharp again; one burst over Dr. P——'s head, in [71] the air, as he was going into Mr. G——s'. About 200 of the enemy's cavalry were seen moving, which caused a little excitement, by no means unpleasing to us in our present inactive condition. The future is a perfect blank to us ”

“ Firing, slack to-day; it is supposed many of the enemy have gone to meet our reinforcements. To-day, we spoilt the bridge of boats over the Goomtee, by firing round shot at it. The night was quiet.
Friday, July 24th. A grand scrimmage about the goats and milk for the children. The reinforcements said to be fourteen coss off. A round shot took off a portion of the roof of our house; but, the enemy's fire was generally slacker: a number of them are evidently gone off to meet our troops. ”

“ We had had a slight attack during the night. Two letters came from Cawnpore, giving accounts of our reinforcements. They will not be here quite so soon as was expected. The 93rd are to be at Cawnpore on the 23rd instant, and the 23rd on the 2nd of November. Sir Colin Campbell is coming over here himself with the troops. I trust they will not delay it too long; for, famine is too horrible to contemplate. Our daily rations of meat are now 12 oz. for a man, 6 oz. for a woman, and 2 oz. for a child, and this is bone inclusive, which is sometimes nearly half; and we have had 9 lbs. ”

“ As soon as day dawned I went all over the immense camp in search of my pony. I found several ladies had passed the night in their dhoolies; Mrs. B—— fortunately had a small tent of her own, so she went straight off to the commissariat officer and asked him for a place for it, and kindly asked me to share it with her; it was such a luxury, when it was pitched, to get [130] into it by ourselves, and I had found the pony, with my bedding, so when I was dressed I lay down on it and rested, for I felt quite worn out. ”

“ There was a great firing of round shot and shell, but only one of our men was killed and none wounded. Bobby had been very ill all night, and Miss S—— sitting up with him; so, at 5, I got up and relieved her, and after breakfast I had to complete my wash of clothes. No news of our reinforcements! During the day a sortie was made, and young J——'s house was blown up: they found eleven men in it, whom they bayonetted; they also blew up a lot of houses in the neighbourhood. A shell had gone through the roof of one of them, and underneath there was a large pool of blood. ”

“ The guns are further off now, but I think more dangerous, for we never know their range now; and two or three round shots come into the house every day, on all sides. In the evening, General Outram came and sat with us, and while chatting a despatch came from Allum Bagh. These despatches are written on thin paper, and rolled up so small that they are put into a little piece of the quill of a pen. This brought good [104] news—that 250 men had arrived at Allum Bagh, with two guns and fifty commissariat carts, and had met with no opposition on the road. ”

“ C—— was in the gentlemen's bath-room, a round shot came in and covered him with bricks and mortar, but did him no injury. This morning, a sortie with about 100 men was made; they blew up some houses, spiked three guns, and killed many Natives, with the loss of one killed and several wounded; two, they fear, mortally. The rest of the day passed quietly. Our dinner to-day was roast mutton, but very little of it, so we opened a tin of salmon, and Mrs. N——, a woman who has charge of Mrs. B——'s children, made us a roly-pudding of ottah and suet—to us a perfect luxury. ”

“ People seemed to bid recklessly, Charlie said; they were to be paid for on the first issue of pay, which many, I believe, think they will never live to receive. Charlie bought, instead, a pair of soldier's high-lows, for eight rupees, from a Sergeant—quite [84] a catch; and far more useful than truffled larks, &c.
Friday, August 28th. No news again! This is very trying—the siege has lasted now more than two months. Every one agrees that the only plan is to blow ourselves up, if the reinforcements do not come in time. ”

“ At Cawnpore they found only two living beings and a heap of dead women and children, being those who escaped the massacre at the boats. They say the [98] place where the murders were committed was a most heart-rending sight; not a soldier left it with a dry eye. We heard also of the B——s' of our regiment having been murdered at Hissar. Every one was trying to get news of his friends; scarcely one but heard bad news. A detachment, with some guns, was left at Allum Bagh in charge of the baggage and stores. The men and officers had only just what they wore. ”