Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/239

Rh spare no troops to guard them. Just at the moment moreover, he had received information of that fatal mutiny at Dánápur, the consequence of the imbecility of the Calcutta Government, which came at the moment to add terribly to the existing complications. There were, also, rebel troops in the districts, any number of whom combining might, if he were to advance further, cut him off from the Ganges. Feeling that these difficulties were too great to be encountered with the force at his disposal, he fell back, on the 31st, to Mangalwár, and despatched thence his sick and wounded into Kánhpur, with a letter to Neill informing him of the reason of his retreat, and adding that, to enable him to reach Lakhnao, it was necessary he should receive a reinforcement of 1000 men and another field-battery.

To this letter Neill wrote a most intemperate, even an insulting. reply. Havelock was very angry. He contented himself, however, for the moment with warning Neill that considerations of the public service alone prevented him from placing him under arrest. But it is the opinion of Havelock's latest biographer that Neill's letter may so have operated on a high-strung temperament, made sensitive by disappointment following on an inspiriting sequence of brilliant successes, as to induce Havelock to attempt another advance without adequate reinforcements. At all events Havelock did attempt a second forward movement. Setting out on the 4th of August, he found himself the following morning in front of Bashíratganj; occupied it, but could not prevent the rebels from carrying off all their guns, and taking a strong position a little further on. He then recognised that to advance further would probably involve the loss of his whole force. Fortified by the opinion of the three officers of his staff whom he con-