fully. On June 25, Wheeler received a
proposal that safe passage would be given to Allahabad to those who were
willing to lay down their arms. An armistice was proclaimed, and next
morning terms were negotiated. The English were to capitulate and march
out with their arms and sixty rounds of ammunition for each man, to the
river a mile away, where boats would be furnished for all. The next morning
they marched down to the boats--the men on foot, the wounded and
non-combatants on elephants and bullocks. They were all huddled together on
board the boats. Suddenly, at the sound of a bugle, a murderous fire was
opened on them. The women and children, one hundred and twenty-five in
number, were hurried off to prison, and the men were ordered to immediate
execution. All was soon over. Nana was proclaimed Peishwa. English
reinforcements were coming from Allahabad. Nana hastened back to Cawnpore.
There, within a few days, more than two hundred English were taken
prisoners. The men were all butchered, and eighty women and children were
sent to join those in a house near the Nana. Great excitement prevailed in
England, where it was believed that these women were subjected to all
manner of outrage and made to long for death as an escape from shame. As a
matter of fact the royal widows of the Nana's adoptive father did their
utmost to protect the captive Englishwomen. They threatened to throw
themselves and their children from the palace windows should any harm
befall the English ladies. Thanks to them no worse indignity than the
compulsory grinding of corn was inflicted on the white women. Meanwhile,
Colonel Mill was pushing up from Calcutta. In July, he was joined at
Allahabad by a column under General Havelock.

[Sidenote: Havelock to the relief]

[Sidenote: Englishwomen slaughtered]

[Sidenote: Capture of Cawnpore]

In July, Havelock left Allahabad for Cawnpore with 2,000 men, Europeans and
Sikhs. He burned to avenge the massacre of Cawnpore. On the 12th and 15th
of July he inflicted three defeats on the enemy. When within twenty miles
of Cawnpore, having halted for the night, he heard that the women and
children at Cawnpore were still alive, and that the Nana had taken the
field to oppose him. He broke camp and marched fifteen miles that night. In
the meantime, the crowning atrocity was committed at Cawnpore. The defeated
rebels had returned to the Nana. On receiving the tidings of their repulse,
he ordered the slaughter of