CAWNPORE 67 



two palm branches across her breast, and sur- 

 rounded by a marble gothic screen, which stands in 

 such a grove as might skirt some cemetery at home. 

 The church is dedicated " To the Glory of God and 

 in memory of more than a thousand people who 

 met their deaths hard by betwixt 6th June and 

 I5th July, 1857"-; the monument, "Sacred to the 

 perpetual memory of a great company of Christian 

 people, chiefly women and children, who near this 

 spot were cruelly murdered by the followers of the 

 rebel Nana Dhundu Pant, of Bithur, and cast, the 

 dying with the dead, into the well below, on the 

 XVth day of July, MDCCCLVII." Both com- 

 memorate the most terrible massacres of the Indian 

 Mutiny, which have made Cawnpore undoubtedly 

 the saddest spot on earth. 



It is difficult to imagine a more desolate and pa- 

 thetic landscape than the scene of these unparalleled 

 tragedies. An empty, brown, sun-baked plain ex- 

 tends in all directions ; one scarcely can find shade 

 from the scorching Indian sun, and a fine burning 

 dust fills the atmosphere. It was in the midst of this 

 shadeless plain that the British garrison, composed 

 largely of women and children, held out for over 

 three weeks in the middle of summer, under con- 

 tinuous fire from the rebel troops. 



The siege began on June 6. Sir Hugh Wheeler, 



