e at Cawnpore, and that Nana had taken the field with a
large force to oppose his advance. Accordingly Havelock marched fourteen
miles that same night, and on the following morning, within eight miles
of Cawnpore, the troops bivouacked beneath some trees.

On that same night, July 15th, the crowning atrocity was committed at
Cawnpore. The rebels, who had been defeated by Havelock, returned to
Nana with the tidings of their disaster. In revenge Nana ordered the
slaughter of the two hundred women and children. The poor victims were
literally hacked to death, or almost to death, with swords, bayonets,
knives, and axus. Next morning the bleeding remains of dead and dying
were dragged to a neighboring well and thrown in.

At two o'clock in the afternoon after the massacre the force under
Havelock was again upon the march for Cawnpore. The heat was fearful;
many of the troops were struck down by the sun, and the cries for water
were continuous. But for two miles the column toiled on, and then came
in sight of the enemy. Havelock had only one thousand Europeans and
three hundred Sikhs; he had no cavalry, and his artillery was inferior.
The enemy numbered five thousand men, armed and trained by British
officers, strongly intrenched, with two batteries of guns of heavy
calibre. Havelock's artillery failed to silence the batteries, and he
ordered the Europeans to charge with the bayonet. On they went in the
face of a shower of grape, but the bayonet charge was as irresistible at
Cawnpore as at Assaye. The enemy fought for a while like men in a death
struggle. Nana Sahib was with them, but nothing is known of his
exploits. At last they fled, and there was no cavalry to pursue them.

As yet nothing was known of the butchery of the women and children.
Havelock halted for the night, and next morning marched his force into
the station at Cawnpore. The men beheld the scene of the massacre, and
saw the bleeding remains in the well. But the murderers had vanished, no
one knew whither. Havelock advanced to Bithoor, and destroyed the palace
of the Mahratta. Subsequently he was joined by General Neill, with
reinforcements from Allahabad; and on July 20th he set on for the relief
of Lucknow, leaving Cawnpore in charge of General Neill.

The defence of Lucknow against fifty-two thousand rebels was, next to
the siege of Delhi, the greatest event in the mutiny. The whole Province
of Oudh was in a blaze of insurrection. The _talukdars_ were ex