front the native officer and the men who had signalised themselves by their loyalty on the 3d, he bestowed upon them, in the name of the Government, substantial tokens of its appreciation of their conduct.
The solemn occasion, the character of the speaker, the truth of the language he employed, combined to produce a considerable effect. Those present were much moved; but the conspirators had done their work too well to allow their dupes to be baffled by a few eloquent and impressive sentences. Whatever was the effect produced by the speech of the 12th of May, that effect was entirely obliterated when, on the 16th, the events of the 10th and 11th of the same month, at Mírath and Dehlí, became common property. No one then recognised more clearly than Sir Henry Lawrence that the days of parleying had gone by, and that the differences between the sipáhís and the Government had entered upon a phase in which victory would be to the strongest. Much, in Oudh, he realised, would depend upon the action of those in whose hands should be concentrated the supreme civil and military authority. He possessed the first, but not the second. Representing the case to Lord Canning, he received, on the 19th, a notification of his appointment as Brigadier-General, in supreme command in Oudh. Then he set to work to prepare for the crisis which he knew might be upon him at any moment.
The city of Lakhnao, built on the west bank of the river Gúmtí, but having suburbs on the east bank, lies forty-two miles to the east of Kánhpur, and 610 miles from Calcutta. All the principal buildings lie between the city and the river bank. Here also are the Residency and its dependencies, covering a space 2150 feet long from north-west to south-east, and 1200 feet broad from east to west. A thousand yards to the west of it was the
