286 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. X. 



teered, whereby I pleased him, poor fellow, and his fellow-officers very 

 much, and I believe I was of use to him. I hoped to have got three 

 days rest at Ghazipoor, but the excitement of seeing new faces, and 

 giving all my news over and over again, and trying to soothe angry 

 officers whose corps had been abused, and explaining mistakes, etc. 

 etc., made the rest very ambiguous ; and the journey back knocked 

 me up. I was very feverish last night, but Home (the magistrate) 

 took tremendous care of me, put my bed next his, and got me limes 

 and honey, and everything he could get for cough or fever. To-day I 

 am a great deal better, but still on rice-milk and chicken-broth, and as 

 I have no duties but a share in the mess management, I get lots of 

 lying down, but no absolute rest, as the nine of us, civil and military, 

 live in one six-roomed bungalow. Don't imagine that nine (only) is 

 the number walking about inside : everybody's bearer except mine and 

 another's, I believe, walk about like tame dogs, bringing their masters' 

 slightest wants, for few think of getting anything for themselves, even 

 from across the room. 



We have a very grave piece of intelligence from the neighbourhood 

 of Legowlie, the headquarters of the 12th Irregular Cavalry. A native 

 brought a report to a gentleman living 8 miles from Legowlie, that on 

 the 24th of July the men of the 12th who were there left the station, 

 and that the commanding officer (Major Holmes) and his wife, and the 

 Doctor (Gardner), had been killed. This news has at length reached 

 us, whom it concerns nearly, as one hundred of the same regiment are 

 here. On the other side, it is to be said that all the principal native 

 officers were absent from Legowlie, two being here now, and one else- 

 where, so that the mutiny may not spread, and we have no treasure 

 here to tempt them, and the Hindu Sepoys are not likely to join them, 

 though their hatred of Musselmans has two or three times given way 

 to their desire for plunder or love of Christian blood. Our position is 

 precarious, but I can look it straight in the face, and in four days or 

 less the crisis will, I hope, have passed. 



Herne is a Poole man, with an uncle there of the name of Biddel. 

 His wife is in the hills, and he hears from her now pretty often, but 

 there is a month's interval between the departure and arrival of her 

 letters. He is a decidedly religious man of a very genuine stamp. 

 He read us last Sunday that grand sermon the Bishop of Calcutta 

 preached towards the end of June. You should get it if it is to be 

 had in England. 



We are daily expecting to hear of the safety of Lucknow. Poor 

 Mrs. Cooper ! She and her children must have been living in cellars 

 for the last month, to be out of the way of cannon balls : and to live 

 in a cellar in India must be dreadfully trying. If any children 

 survive it will be a mercy, a mercy indeed if they escape the awful, 

 horrible fate of the ladies of Cawnpore. Mrs. Cave, whom I men- 

 tioned in my Journal, was, I fear, at the latter place. As a Madras 

 fusilier said to me (in a broad Irish accent), " I don't care what they 

 do to the likes of me but the women and Ladies too ! " 



