CHAPTER XVII

THE SIEGE, AND CAPTURE OF LUCKNOW

DURING the night of March lo-ii, 12 siege
pieces in battery bombarded the Begam Kothi
and the bastion built in front of the Hazratganj, and
at daylight on the nth, 8 more cannon, manned
by the Naval Brigade, opened on the same targets,
firing also on the Mess - house and Kaisarbagh.
During the day Lieutenants Carnegy, Lang, and
Medley, of the Bengal Engineers, noticing the absence
of sound in the enclosure of the Kadam Rasul (literally,
" Prophet's Footstep"), 600 yards from the enemy's
second line of defence, crept in, and from the roof
of the building saw that the Shah Najaf, 300 yards
farther on, was apparently deserted, Medley's request
for 100 men in order to occupy it was refused by
the officer commanding at the Sikandarbagh, a quarter
of a mile in the rear; but he rode on to General
Lugard, who was at Bank's house, and obtained his
approval, so the enclosure which had defied Sir
Colin Campbell's attacks in November was garrisoned
without loss, and then rendered defensible.

Sir Colin Campbell reluctantly left the Front to
receive Jang Bahadur in the Dilkusha camp, and at
4 o'clock in the afternoon, while the interpreter
was translating compliments between the  red-coated

Scot, and the jewel-decked Gurkha Chief, the capture

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