tion-park and siege-train had moved on. The sun was high in
the heavens before we left the encamping-ground, and in passing under a
tree on the side of the Cawnpore and Lucknow road, I looked up, and was
horrified to see my late prisoner and his companion hanging stark and
stiffened corpses! I could hardly repress a tear as I passed. But on the
11th of March, in the assault on the Begum's Kothee, I remembered
Mahomed Ali Khan and looked on the ring. I am thankful to say that I
went through the rest of the campaign without a scratch, and the
thoughts of my kindness to this unfortunate man certainly did not
inspire me with any desire to shirk danger. I still have the ring, the
only piece of Mutiny plunder I ever possessed, and shall hand it down to
my children together with the history of Mahomed Ali Khan.

FOOTNOTES:

[37] Butler.

[38] It must also be remembered that these officials knew much more of
the terrible facts attending the Mutiny--of the wholesale murder (and
even worse) of English women and the slaughter of English children--than
the rank and file were permitted to hear; and that they were also, both
from their station and their experience, far better able to decide the
measures best calculated to crush the imminent danger threatening our
dominion in India.

[39] Lit. Lady-house.

[40] Foreigner. Among the sepoys the word usually signified an Afghan or
Caubuli.

[41] This very man who denounced Jamie Green as a spy was actually
hanged in Bareilly in the following May for having murdered his master
in that station when the Mutiny first broke out.

CHAPTER XI

THE SIEGE OF LUCKNOW--SIR COLIN APPOINTED COLONEL OF THE NINETY-THIRD
--ASSAULT ON THE MARTINIERE--A "RANK" JOKE.

After leaving Oonao our division under Sir Edward Lugard reached
Buntera, six miles from the Alumbagh, on the 27th of February, and
halted there till the 2nd of March, when we marched to the Dilkoosha,
encamping a short distance from the palace barely beyond reach of the
enemy's guns, for they were able at times to throw round-shot into our
camp. We then settled down for the siege and capture of Lucknow; but the
work before us was considered tame and unimportant when compared with
that of the relief of the previous November. Every soldier in the camp
clearly recognised that the capture of the doomed city was simply a
matter of time,--a few days more or less--and the task before us a mere
matter of routine, nothing to be co