Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/236

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208
Death of Major Banks.

swagger; of the mind over matter. The writer[1] adds that, in another sense, it was still more important. It proved to the mutineers that they had miscalculated their chances; that, unless famine should come to aid them, they and their countrymen would never triumph over that handful of Europeans.

The result of that day's action, doubtless, greatly 'encouraged the garrison. Their losses, four killed and twelve wounded, had been small, whilst the casualties of the rebels had been severe. The day following, however, they suffered a bereavement second only to that which they had experienced when Sir Henry Lawrence died. His successor. Major Banks, whilst reconnoitring from the top of an outhouse, was shot dead through the head. He had been an invaluable colleague to Brigadier Inglis, and it was felt there was no one left who could replace him. The office he had held was accordingly left vacant until the Government of India could be communicated with.

The garrison had no certain knowledge of the events passing at Kánhpur. They had despatched many letters by native messengers believed to be faithful, but up to the 25th of July no reply had been received. Three days previously, however, on the 22d, their most trusted messenger, a pensioned sipáhí named Angad, arrived to state that he had seen the victorious English regiments at Kánhpur; but it was not till the 25th that the same messenger, who had been sent out again, returned with a letter from Tytler stating that 'Havelock was advancing with a force sufficient to bear down all opposition, and would arrive in five or six days.' Inglis replied by despatching, by Angad, to Havelock a plan of his position and of the roads by which it could be approached. This reply reached Have-

  1. Kaye's and Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny. Cabinet edition, vol. iii., page 303.