Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/404

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368
Lord Cannings Proclamation.

his mission he did nothing. It was officially stated that he had lost his way.[1] The rebels, consequently, escaped.

Not all, however. Outram was there to repair to a certain extent Campbell's error. Noticing that the rebels were preparing to escape from the Músábágh, he had despatched to cut them off the 9th Lancers, followed by some infantry and field-artillery. These killed about 100 of them, and captured all their guns.

This was the concluding act of the storming of Lakhnao. The day following was issued Lord Canning's proclamation confiscating the entire proprietary right in the soil of Oudh, save in the case of six comparatively inferior chiefs. To rebel landowners who should at once surrender immunity from death and imprisonment was promised, provided that they could show that they were guiltless of unprovoked bloodshed. To those who had protected British fugitives special consideration was promised. The principles embodied in the proclamation were just, and when the time came they were acted upon with such consideration as to secure the loyalty which had been alienated by the enforcement of the stern code which had immediately followed the annexation; but at the moment the effect was to embitter the hearts of those against whom the proclamation was directed.

It having been ascertained that the famous Maulaví was still in Lakhnao, and that from Shádatganj, in the heart of the city, he still bade defiance to the conqueror, Lugard was sent, on the 21st, with the 93d and 4th Panjáb Rifles, to attack him. He and his followers were effectively dislodged, and were pursued by Campbell, this time on the spot. But the Maulaví escaped. Two days later Hope Grant sent after the rebels who had fled by the

  1. Hope Grant (Incidents of the Sepoy War) is very, but not unjustly, severe on Campbell.