ore. It was the first time since the mutiny broke out that the
sepoys had been beaten in the field, and it shook their confidence,
while it gave fresh courage to sir Henry Lawrence and the heroic band
in the residency of Lucknow. But the relief which they hoped for was
still many months distant, and Havelock was fighting his way inch by
inch, across rivers, over bridges, along guarded roads, with soldiers
often half-fed, and wearing the thick clothes that they had carried
through the snows of a Persian winter. But they never flinched and never
grumbled--they could even laugh in the midst of it all! During a fierce
struggle for a bridge over the Pandoo river, one of the 78th Highlanders
was killed by a round shot close to where Havelock was standing.

'He has a happy death, Grenadiers,' remarked the general, 'for he died
in the service of his country'; but a voice answered from behind:

'For mysel, sir, gin ye've nae objection, I wud suner bide alive in the
service of ma cuntra.' And let us hope he did.

The guns across the bridge were captured with a dash, and the sepoys
retreated on Cawnpore. In spite of their victory our men were too tired
to eat, and flung themselves on the ground where they were. Next
morning, July 16, they set out on a march of sixteen miles, after
breakfasting on porter and biscuits, having had no other food for about
forty hours.

At the end of the sixteen miles march, which they had performed under a
burning sun, the bugles sounded a halt. For three hours the troops
rested and fed, and then two sepoys who had remained loyal to their salt
came in with the news that in front of us Nana Sahib, with five thousand
men and eight guns, was drawn up across the Grand Trunk road, down which
he expected our guns to pass; and doubtless they would have been sent
that way had it not been for the timely warning. Now Havelock, with a
strong detachment, crept round through some mango groves between the
enemy's left flank and the Ganges, and attacked from behind; the sepoys
wheeled round in a hurry and confusion, and the Nana dared not order his
right and centre to fire lest they should injure his own men, and before
he could re-form them the pipers of the 78th had struck up and the
Highlanders were upon them, the sound of the slogan striking terror into
the heart of the Hindoos. Once more the Scots charged, led this time by
Havelock himself, and the position was carried.

Yet the Nana was hard to beat, and o