CAWNPORE 73 



was eventually captured, and the eighty occupants 

 returned to Cawnpore, the men, and one woman 

 who refused to leave them, being immediately shot, 

 while the women and children were sent to the 

 bungalow to join the other survivors of the ghat 

 massacre. 



Meanwhile the little band of thirteen on shore 

 wandered along the bank, with bare heads and feet, 

 and continually under fire from natives who how- 

 ever dared not close in, till they came to a large body 

 of rebels in front of a temple on the bank. Troops 

 were posted on the opposite shore to shoot them 

 down should they attempt to swim. They were 

 completely surrounded. Thomson gave the order 

 to rush the temple, which they did with success, 

 Sergeant Grady, however, being killed as he entered. 

 The men then kneeled in the doorway behind their 

 bayonets, on which the foremost rebels, pushed for- 

 ward by those behind, fell transfixed and formed a 

 rampart of bodies to shield the remaining British 

 soliders. Every method was taken to dislodge the 

 remaining twelve; undermining the temple failed; 

 then the natives attempted to set fire to the building 

 with burning fagots, without success. Finally bags 

 of gunpowder were thrown on the embers, over 

 which the British charged with their bare feet, and 

 by means of their bayonets seven of them succeeded 



