ghty
miles that separated him from Allahabad, the largest arsenal in India
except Delhi. For five days the sepoys had been killing and plundering
the British. On hearing of Neill's approach, two thousand of them
encamped near the fort in order to hold it, but an attack of the
Fusiliers soon dispersed them, and the commander ordered a large number
to be executed in order to strike terror into the rest.

Bad as was the state of things at Allahabad, where the railway had been
destroyed and the garrison was weak, it was still worse in Cawnpore, a
hundred and twenty miles higher up the Ganges. Here sir Hugh Wheeler was
in command, and having spent his whole life among the sepoys it was long
before he would believe in the tales of their treason. Even when at
length his faith was partly shaken by the deeds done under his eyes, he
still did not take all the precautions that were needful. His little
fort, which was to be the last refuge of the sick and wounded, women and
children, in case of attack, was a couple of barracks one brick thick,
which had hitherto been used as a hospital, and in this he gave orders
that provisions for a twenty-five days' siege should be stored. This was
the place for which he intended to abandon the powder magazine, where he
could have held the enemy at bay for months.

* * * * *

With inconceivable carelessness nobody saw that the orders for
provisioning the fort were properly carried out, or the works of defence
capable of resisting an attack. By May 22, however, even sir Hugh
Wheeler was convinced that there was danger abroad, and he directed that
the women and children, whose numbers were now swelled by fugitives
from Lucknow and the surrounding towns, should be placed in it.
Altogether the refugees amounted to about five hundred, and the force of
men to defend them was about equal.

* * * * *

The expected siege did not begin till June 6, when the plain which
surrounds Cawnpore was black with sepoys, led by the treacherous Nana.
For three weeks the prisoners inside the fort underwent the most
frightful sufferings of every kind, and had it not been for the women
the garrison would have tried to cut their way through to the river. As
it was they felt they must stay--till the end.

So the soldiers fought on, and the women helped as best they might,
giving their stockings as bags for grape-shot, and tearing up their
clothes to bind