Page:The tourist's guide to Lucknow.djvu/26

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
( 13 )

materially aided in the defence of the place that it now stands a monument of England's supremacy in the East!

The Right Hon'ble the Earl of Canning, G. C. B., G. C. S. I., Governor-General of India, expressed his admiration of the defence of the Residency in the following words:—

"There does not stand recorded in the annals of war an achievement more truly heroic than the defence of the Residency at Lucknow."

"There were events that made a deeper impression on the minds of the English public; military exploits more grand and comprehensive; episodes more fatal, more harrowing; trains of operation in which well-known heroic names more frequently found place—but there was nothing in the whole history of the Indian Mutiny more admirable or worthy of study than the defence of Lucknow by Brigadier Inglis and the British who were shut up with him in the Residency. Such triumph over difficulties has not often been placed upon record. Nothing but the most resolute determination, the most complete soldierly obedience, the most untiring watchfulness, the most gentle care of those who from sex or age were unable to defend themselves, the most thorough reliance on himself and on those around him, could have enabled that gallant officer to bear up against the overwhelming difficulties which pressed upon him throughout the siege. He occupied one corner of an enormous city, every other part of which was swarming with deadly enemies. No companion could leave him, without danger of instant death at the hands of the rebel sepoys and the Lucknow rabble; no friend could succour him, seeing that anything less than a considerable military force would have been cut off ere it reached the gates of the Residency; no food or drink, no medicines or comforts, no clothing, no ammunition, in addition to that which was actually within the place at the beginning of July, could be brought in. Great beyond expression were the responsibilities and anxieties of one placed in command during eighty-seven of such days—but there was also a moral grandeur in the situation, never to be forgotten."