it.

Before I proceed to other subjects, and to make my recollections as
instructive as possible for young soldiers, I may mention some serious
accidents that happened through the explosions of gunpowder left behind
by the enemy. One most appalling accident occurred in the house of a
nobleman named Ushruf-ood-dowlah, in which a large quantity of gunpowder
had been left; this was accidentally exploded, killing two officers and
forty men of the Engineers, and a great number of camp-followers, of
whom no account was taken. The poor men who were not killed outright
were so horribly scorched that they all died in the greatest agony
within a few hours of the accident, and for days explosions with more or
less loss of life occurred all over the city. From the deplorable
accidents that happened, which reasonable care might have prevented, I
could enumerate the loss of over a hundred men, and I cannot too
strongly impress on young soldiers the caution required in entering
places where there is the least chance of coming across concealed
gunpowder. By the accident in the house of Ushruf-ood-dowlah, two of our
most distinguished and promising Engineer officers,--Captains Brownlow
and Clarke--lost their lives, with forty of the most valuable branch of
the service. All through the Mutiny I never forgot my own experience in
the Shah Nujeef (as related in the fifth chapter of these
reminiscences); and wherever I could prevent it, I never allowed men to
go into unexplored rooms with lighted pipes, or to force open locked
doors by the usual method of firing a loaded rifle into the lock. I
think there ought to be a chapter of instructions on this head in every
drill-book and soldiers' pocket-book. After the assault on a city like
Lucknow some license and plundering is inevitable, and where discipline
is relaxed accidents are sure to happen; but a judicious use of the
provost-marshal's cat would soon restore discipline and order. Whatever
opponents of the lash may say, my own firm opinion is that the
provost-marshal's cat is the only general to restore order in times like
those I am describing. I would have no courts-martial, drum-head or
otherwise; but simply give the provost-marshal a strong guard of picked
men and several sets of triangles, with full power to tie up every man,
no matter what his rank, caught plundering, and give him from one to
four dozen, not across the shoulders, but across the breech, as judicial
floggings are admin