afterwards a number of city budmashes (bad characters) on their way to join the mutineers, were intercepted, and, on returning to the city, they commenced an outbreak, but, by the efforts of the Police, were completely defeated and dispersed. Numerous arrests followed this affair, and several executions were effected. These executions took place near the Machhi Bhawan Fort, the gallows being commanded by the guns on the ramparts, which were always kept loaded with grape. Thus closed the month of May at Lucknow.
42. In the beginning of June the native troops at Secrora were ripe for mutiny, but Mr. C. J. Wingfield, Com- missioner of the Bahraich division, was enabled to place confidence in the friendliness of the Raja of Bulrampur, Drig Bijai Singh,[1] and to arrange that the European officers should seek refuge with him when the crisis came. This was done, and, after a few days' stay at Bulrampur, the whole party, under an escort, reached the Gorakhpur district in safety.
43. "While busy preparing the defences with which Sir Henry was surrounding the Residency and the other houses near it, so as to form intrenchments, and make the best of our position, we were joined by the few Europeans who had escaped from the massacres at other stations in Oudh. The news they brought deepened the gloom of the situation. Reports of the dead bodies of Europeans, among them three ladies, lying by the road- side a few miles out, were brought to us, and the fiendish cruelty to which they were exposed received a fearful illustration when, one day, some natives brought to the Residency the body of an English lady, which they found lying on the road-side cut up into quarters! fortunate people were evidently making for the when they were overtaken and thus cruelly murdered and mutilated by the sepoys." Up to this time it had not been decided whether both posts, i.e., the Machhi Bhawan, and the Residency, should be held, or one only, but, after some deliberation, the abandonment of the former and the concentration of the force at the latter was decided upon. This resolution was formed on the report made by the Engineers to the effect that the Fort was untenable; that its walls would not resist Artillery; and that
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- ↑ During the whole course of the rebellion, this young Raja remained staunch to the British cause, and, at its close, he was well rewarded for his fidelity by Government, which bestowed on him high titles, in addition to an extensive grant of land contiguous to the Nepal Terai where his estates lie. Machhi Bhawan is situated about one mile north of the Residency
