to have
brought in all without serious loss. The party reached the brigadier's
body without apparently attracting the attention of the enemy; but just
as two men, Rule of my regiment and Patrick Doran, were lifting it into
the _dooly_ they were seen, and the enemy opened fire on them. A bullet
struck Doran and went right through his body from side to side, without
touching any of the vital organs, just as he was bending down to lift
the brigadier--a most extraordinary wound! If the bullet had deviated a
hair's-breadth to either side, the wound must have been mortal, but
Doran was able to walk back to the fort, and lived for many years after
taking his discharge from the regiment.

During the time that this piquet was engaged the Blue-jackets of Peel's
Brigade and our heavy artillery had taken up positions in front of the
fort, and showed the gunners of the Gwalior Contingent that they were no
longer confronted by raw inexperienced troops. By the afternoon of the
29th of November, the whole of the women and children and sick and
wounded from Lucknow had crossed the Ganges, and encamped behind the
Ninety-Third on the Allahabad road, and here I will leave them and close
this chapter.

FOOTNOTES:

[27] Native cavalry troopers.

[28] See Appendix D.

CHAPTER VIII

ANECDOTES--ACTION WITH THE GWALIOR CONTINGENT--ITS DEFEAT--PURSUIT OF
THE NANA--BITHOOR--JOHN LANG AND JOTEE PERSHAD

So far as I now remember, the 30th of November, 1857, passed without any
movement on the part of the enemy, and the Commander-in-Chief, in his
letter describing the state of affairs to the Governor-General, said, "I
am obliged to submit to the hostile occupation of Cawnpore until the
actual despatch of all my incumbrances towards Allahabad is effected."
As stated in the last chapter, when our tents came up our camp was
pitched (as near as I can now make out from the altered state of
Cawnpore), about the spot where Joe Lee's hotel and the jute mill of
Messrs. Beer Brothers and Co. now stand. St. Andrew's day and evening
passed without molestation, except that strong piquets lined the canal
and guarded our left and rear from surprise, and the men in camp slept
accoutred, ready to turn out at the least alarm. But during the night,
or early on the morning of the 1st of December, the enemy had quietly
advanced some guns, unseen by our piquets, right up to the Cawnpore side
of the canal, and suddenly opened fire on the Ninety-Third just