s incite them to revolt. The result was
disastrous, for the earth walls that he raised furnished poor protection
and the place was raked by the native artillery and small arms from
every point of the compass. A worse place to defend could not have been
chosen, but the twenty officers and two hundred men held it against a
horde of mutinous natives for twenty days of blazing heat. The only
water for the little garrison was obtained under severe fire of the
enemy from a well sixty feet deep.

Finally, when the supply of provisions was nearly exhausted, General
Wheeler agreed to surrender to the Nana Sahib, provided the men were
allowed to carry arms and ammunition and boats were furnished for safe
conduct down the river. Of course, the Nana accepted these terms, but it
seems incredible that a veteran army officer should have trusted the
lives of women and children to Sepoys who were as cruel as our own
Apaches. The little garrison, with the wounded, the women and the
children, was escorted down to the river and placed on barges. But when
the order was given to push off, the treacherous Sepoys grounded the
boats in the mud and the gunners of Nana Sahib opened fire on the
barges. The grape shot set fire to the matting of the barges and many of
the wounded were smothered. One boat escaped down the river, but the
survivors were captured after several days of hardship, the men murdered
and the women and children brought back to Cawnpore. The men in the
other boats who survived were shot, but one hundred and twenty-five
women and children were returned to Cawnpore as prisoners. They spent
seven anxious days and then when Nana Sahib saw he could not hold
Cawnpore any longer he ordered the Sepoys to shoot the English women and
children. To the credit of these mutineers they refused to obey orders
and fired into the ceiling of the wretched rooms where the prisoners
were lodged. Then Nana Sahib sent for five butchers and these men, with
their long knives, murdered the helpless victims of this monster of
cruelty. On the following morning the bodies of dead and dying were cast
into the well at Cawnpore. On the site of this well has been raised a
costly memorial surmounted by a marble angel of the resurrection. The
design is not impressive, but no one can see it without pity for the
unfortunates who were delivered into the hands of the most atrocious
character of modern times. The Memorial Church at Cawnpore, which cost
one hundred tho