Chatar Manzil to the Residency side of the Kaisarbágh. Two strong defensive lines of works, including the Citadel, on which the second line rested, defended by nearly 40,000 men, had been stormed. All honour to the men who planned and carried out so magnificent a work: to Havelock and Brasyer, to Franks and Napier, to Annesley, to the men of the 10th and 90th, and to the Sikhs. All honour, also, to those who gave their lives in the noble enterprise.
The rebels would have been completely destroyed, and the whole of Lakhnao would have lain, helpless, the next morning at the feet of Sir Colin Campbell if, whilst Franks and Napier were storming the Kaisarbágh, Outram had crossed by the iron bridge and cut off those who escaped from the several places as they were stormed. That this did not happen was no fault of Outram. He recognised the advantage to be gained, and applied during the day for permission to execute such a manœuvre. The reply was the most extraordinary ever received by a general in the field. It consisted of a short note from Mansfield, chief of the staff, telling him he might cross by the iron bridge, but that 'he was not to do so if he thought he would lose a single man.' Such a proviso was a prohibition, for not only were guns posted to defend the bridge, but the bridge was commanded by a mosque and several loopholed houses. The loss, then, would have greatly exceeded that of one man. That the proviso was dictated by a very shortsighted policy can be realised by the slightest reflection. The ultimate pursuit of the rebels who escaped because Outram did not cross caused an infinitely greater loss of men to the British army than the storming of the bridge and the taking of the rebels in rear would have occasioned.
On the right bank of the Gúmtí Sir Colin devoted the
