sick and the wounded; and to furnish boats
for carrying the whole party, numbering some four hundred fifty
individuals, down the river Ganges to Allahabad. Nana accepted the
terms, but demanded the evacuation of the intrenchment that very night.
General Wheeler protested against this proviso. Nana began to bully and
to threaten that he would open fire. He was told that he might carry the
intrenchment if he could, but that the English had enough powder left to
blow both armies into the air. Accordingly Nana agreed to wait until the
morrow.

At early morning on June 27th the garrison began to move from the
intrenchment to the place of embarkation. The men marched on foot; the
women and children were carried on elephants and in bullock-carts, while
the wounded were mostly conveyed in palanquins. Forty boats with
thatched roofs, known as _budgerows_, were moored in shallow water at a
little distance from the bank; and the crowd of fugitives were forced to
wade through the river to the boats. By nine o'clock the whole four
hundred fifty were huddled on board, and the boats prepared to leave
Cawnpore.

Suddenly a bugle was sounded, and a murderous fire of grape-shot and
musketry was opened upon the wretched passengers from both sides of the
river. At the same time the thatching of many of the budgerows was found
to be on fire, and the flames began to spread from boat to boat. Numbers
were murdered in the river, but at last the firing ceased. A few escaped
down the river, but only four men survived to tell the story of the
massacre. A mass of fugitives were dragged ashore; the women and
children, to the number of a hundred twenty-five, were carried off and
lodged in a house near the headquarters of Nana. The men were ordered to
immediate execution. One of them had preserved a prayer-book, and was
permitted to read a few sentences of the liturgy to his doomed
companions. Then the fatal order was given; the sepoys poured in a
volley of musketry, and all was over.

On July 1st Nana Sahib went off to his palace at Bithoor and was
proclaimed peshwa. He took his seat upon the throne, and was installed
with all the ceremonies of sovereignty, while the cannon roared out a
salute in his honor. At night the whole place was illuminated, and the
hours of darkness were wiled away with feasting and fireworks. But his
triumph was short-lived. The Mahometans were plotting against him at
Cawnpore. The people were leaving the city to escape