Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/192

Rh Meanwhile, Sir Henry had been in ceaseless correspondence with the out-stations in Oudh, and the neighbouring stations of Cawnpur and Allahábád outside the borders of Oudh, Allahábád was the most important strategical position in Upper India, being the site of a fortress of the European type at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna; and Sir Henry had urged the authorities there to garrison it with English troops, and not to leave it at the mercy even of the Sikh regiment which was already there. But this advice was not attended to, and such British soldiers as had reached Allahábád, instead of being kept there, had been sent on to Cawnpur. There, in like manner, Sir Henry had urged on Sir Hugh Wheeler — a soldier of great experience — to occupy the magazine as a defensible post; but Sir Hugh did not act on this suggestion. Two reasons have been given for his objection to it: one, that the British detachments coming up from Allahábád could be cut off by the Sepoys, if they proved to be rebels, as their lines (corresponding to barracks) lay on the Allahábád side of the magazine; the other, that the river was that year exceptionally low, and left the magazine with an inadequate supply of water. But in his heart the old General did not realize till too late that there would be any dangerous outbreak at Cawnpur, and thus had ordered back to Lucknow those reinforcements of the 32nd which Sir Henry had sent him; and he was also forwarding on to