§11. Next day another rebel force was routed, and then followed a crowning victory at Cawnpore. But now Havelock was too late. Maddened by defeat, Nana Sahib had ordered the slaughter of the women and children, and then had fled away in the hope of finding refuge at his castle at Bithoor.
Never before had British soldiers beheld such a sight as met their eyes at Cawnpore. Other fugitive women and children had been captured by Nana Sahib, and 200 helpless beings had been imprisoned in the same building. A veil may be thrown over their sufferings. Some of the poor ladies were compelled to grind corn for the household of Nana Sahib, and they were glad to do so, as it enabled them to bring back some flour for their half-starved children. In this wretched plight, longing for relief but despairing of succour, they had been suddenly attacked by sepoys and rebels, and mercilessly hacked to pieces with swords and hatchets, and then thrust into a well. Never, so long as a Briton remains in India, will the ghastly well at Cawnpore be forgotten. Since then a Christian church has been built over the well, and a marble angel is seen with outspread wings, as if imploring forgiveness and mercy.
Havelock advanced to Bithoor, but Nana Sahib had fled into Oudh. At Bithoor Havelock demolished the castle, and brought away the guns. Within a few days he left General Neill at Cawnpore, and crossed the Ganges into Oudh with a force of 1,500 Europeans and Sikhs, for the relief of Lucknow.
§12. It was now the middle of July, and it is necessary to glance at the progress of affairs at Lucknow since the 3rd of May. On that day an irregular corps of Oudh sepoys had threatened to murder its European adjutant; but that same night a force of European soldiers and Bengal sepoys marched against them. The mutineers surrendered their arms, and then rushed off in a panic of terror towards Delhi. The Bengal sepoys hotly pursued them, and arrested the ringleaders. But the scare at greased cartridges was rankling in the breasts of these very Bengal sepoys; and Sir Henry Lawrence had reason to fear that sooner or later they would break out in mutiny like the Oudh Irregulars.
For the moment, however, the Bengal regulars had been overawed by the prompt action of the Europeans. Accordingly Sir Henry Lawrence determined on a public distribution of presents to the Asiatic officers and sepoys who had distinguished themselves on the 3rd of May; and thus to show that if the British government was prompt to punish mutiny, it was equally prompt in rewarding faithful service.