BOOK IX. Chapter I.

1857. June 4.

Their first proceeding was to take possession of the treasure; their next to release the prisoners. Then, at half-past 5 o'clock on the afternoon of the 4th of June they started. The Europeans accompanied them, two or three ladies crammed into a buggy, the remainder prone on baggagecarts. The first march of ten miles was accomplished without incident. Of the second march only about three miles had been walked when the halt was sounded, and a trooper told the Europeans they were at liberty to go where they liked. They pushed on at once towards the nearest town, Arangábád. They had arrived The fugitives within half a mile of that place, when the mu- dered, tineers, regardless of their oaths, set upon them, and began the work of butchery. Of the whole party, one alone was spared to tell the tale, and it but one. is from his narrative that I am able to collect this story of perjury and murder.*

It remains to

* Captain Patrick Orr. The riding my horse. Then the following is his account of the most infernal struggle ever slaughter. "Next morning, witnessed by man began. Friday, the 5th, we marched We all collected under a tree towards Arangábád. When close by, and put the ladies we had come about two koss down from the buggy. Shots the halt was sounded and a were firing in all directions trooper told us to go on ahead amidst the most fearful yells. where we liked. We went on The poor ladies all joined in for some distance when we prayer coolly and undauntedly saw a party coming along. awaiting their fate. I stopped They soon joined us, and fol- for about three minutes lowed the buggy which we amongst them, but thinking were pushing on with all our of my poor wife and child might. When within half a here, I endeavoured to save mile of Arangábád a sepoy my life for their sakes. I rushed forward and snatched rushed out towards the insurKey's gun from him and shot gents and one of our men down poor old Shiels who was Gúrdín, 6th company, called

are all mur

BOOK IX. Chapter I.

1857. July.

388

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN P. ORR.

add that Captain Orr after some adventures, and communicating by the way with one of the fugitive parties from Sítápúr-that led by Sir M. Jackson-succeeded in joining his wife and child at Katchiání. On arriving there he received a from Sitápúr communication from the Rájá that the mud fort

Fugitives

reach Mi

thaoli.

at that place was required for the Sítápúr fugi-
tives; that it would not be safe for so many to be
together; and that it was advisable that he and his
wife and child should migrate to and live in the
jungles about Mithaolí. This they did. By this
term, jungles, the reader must not understand an
ordinary forest, the noble trees of which would
have afforded a grateful and necessary shade; but
he must picture to himself a vast and dreary
extent of land, covered with thorny brushwood,
and where it was necessary to light fires at night
to scare away tigers, wolves, and other wild
animals. Only the coarsest food was provided for
them. The other fugitives were then sent from
Mithaolí to occupy Katchianí.†

out to me to throw down my clerks. They denuded the
pistol and he would save me. bodies of their clothes for the
I did so, when he put himself sake of plunder." The list
between me and the men, and above referred to comprised
several others followed his one civilian, three captains,
example. In about ten minutes six lieutenants, three ensigns,
more they completed their a sergeant, a bandmaster, eight
hellish work
They ladies, and four children.
the drummer, who was not an
European, I can find no fur-
ther mention.

killed the wounded and the
children butchering them in
the most cruel way. With the
exception of the drummer boy
every one was killed of the
above list, fugitives from
Shájehánpúr, besides poor
good Thomason and our two

Of

They consisted of Sir M. Jackson and his sister; Lieutenant Barnes; Sergeant-Major Morton and Mr. Christian's little girl. Joined after a time

BOOK 1X. Chapter L.

1857.

April.

Adjoining the Khairábád division is the northern, or Bahráich division of Oudh, bounded on the south by the river Ghágrá, separating it from the Faizábád division, on the west by the Sardá di- Bahráich. viding it from Khairábád, and on the north by Nipál. The principal civil station, and the headquarters of the Commissioner of the division, Mr. Charles Wingfield,* was close to the town which gave its name to the division-the town of Bahráich. The other stations were Mathápúr to the west, Sikrorá to the south, Gondah to the southeast. Of these, Sikrorá was the principal military Sikrorá station. In the month of April 1857, it was garrisoned by the 1st Regiment of Oudh Irregular Cavalry, commanded by Captain Daly; by the 2nd Oudh Infantry, under Captain Boileau; and by a local horse battery, under Lieutenant Bonham.

71st Native Infantry. A few
days

later the surviving
daughter of Mr. Christian died.
There remained then Mrs. Orr,
Miss Jackson, and the child
of the former. To save the
child her death was simulated,

by the party from the jungle,
the fugitives remained in this
fort suffering great privations
and subject to repeated at-
tacks of jungle-fever, till the
25th of October. They were
then ordered to depart, no
one knew whither, under a and she was conveyed in
guard furnished by the Rájá safety to the house of Mán
of Mithaolí. With scant cloth- Singh, and ultimately to the
ing, bare-footed, the men British camp. The ladies re-
loaded with chains, they were mained in confinement till the
taken to Lakhnao, and impri- 19th of March, when they
soned in the Kaisar-bágh, one were rescued by a party of
of the regal palaces, then Gúrkhás commanded by two
strongly occupied by the re- British officers, and conveyed
bels. The sufferings of the safely to the camp of Sir
men did not last long. On James Outram.

the 16th of November the *Now Sir Charles Wing-
men were taken out and shot field, K.C.S.I.
by a party of sepoys of the

BOOK IX. Chapter I.

1857. April.

His sound views.

During the month of April Mr. Wingfield had been driven by circumstances entirely unconnected with the rising storm to remove his head-quarters Mr. Wingfield. to Sikrorá. A man of ability, of culture, and of large views, he had not sympathised with the sweeping change of system which had inaugurated the transfer of Oudh from its Mahomedan king to British rule. He had ever been in favour of dealing gently with the territorial aristocracy. A system, roughly, even rudely introduced, which scarcely veiled its animating principle of raising the peasantry and small proprietors to a position which would enable them ultimately to oust the great landowners, was not in accordance with his ideas. He had done, then, all that lay in his power to make the transfer easy, to smooth down the rough edges, to mitigate the worst effects of the process. The appointment of Sir Henry Lawrence as Chief Commissioner, coming even when it did, was a great support to him. It would have been still greater, still more weighty, had it been made earlier.

Early foresees the tendency of

the policy adopted.

Like his chief at Lakhnao, like that chief's brother at Láhor, like Durand at Indúr, like William Tayler at Patná, Mr. Wingfield had never been a partisan of the "passing and groundless panic" theory of Mr. Cecil Beadon. He had fully appreciated the events at Barhámpúr and at Bárrákpúr. The revolt at Mírath he regarded as the practical answer of the sepoys to the policy of the Government. He felt, then, than an outbreak at the military station of Sikrorá was a mere question of time; that, given all the circumstances

HIS RELATIONS WITH THE LANDOWNERS.

391

of the case-the composition of the native army, the annexation of Oudh-the province, a portion of which he was administering, would not be the last to feel the shock of mutiny.

BOOK IX. Chapter I.

1857.

April.

Impressed with this belief, and having ab- Gratitude solutely no faith in the men who composed the him by the garrison of Sikrorá, Mr. Wingfield had endeavoured landowners. to enlist on the side of the British the members of that territorial aristocracy whom the annexation of Oudh had done so much to injure. Chief among these was Dirg Bijéh Singh, Rájá of Balrampúr, a town in the north-east corner of his division, and close to the Nipál frontier. Rájá Dirg Bijéh Singh was a man of character and sense. He entertained towards Mr. Wingfield friendly-even grateful-feelings. He had not been innoculated with the poison that pervaded the atmosphere. He received, then, Mr. Wingfield's advances with courtesy; he responded to them; and even engaged to afford refuge, in case of necessity, to him and to the officers serving in his division.

The views entertained by Mr. Wingfield regarding the general untrustworthiness of the sepoys, were fortunately shared by many other officers at Sikrorá. Neither he nor they, therefore, thought that either wisdom or courage required that the ladies and children should be left in a position, defenceless and incapable of being defended, until an actual outbreak should occur. It happened that an officer of Daly's Horse, Captain Forbes, was in Lakhnao early in June. He knew that his own men would mutiny, and he

Captain

Forbes es

corts the ladies and Lakhnao.

children to