Page:The Lucknow album 1874 by Darogha Ubbas Alli.djvu/44

 could make no impression on it, and it withstood successfully their most furious attacks. This archway was the proper entrance to the Residency : it was through it that the brave relieving force marched with the gallant Outram at their head, on the 25th of September, 1857. The General was wounded early in the day, but still kept his place in the saddle and remained at the head of his column. On this event, the enthusiasm of the defenders has been graphically described by Sir George Couper ; it put new life into them just at a time when they considered their fate sealed and had given up all hope. General Outram was the first man who entered the Bailie Guard to effect the memorable " relief of Lucknow." Every man who could stand upon his feet joined in giving hearty British cheers at the entrance of that force which proclaimed to them that they were saved from a fate worse than death. Women and children then experienced that blessed sense of security which only those who have encountered, and been providentially saved from, imminent peril, can possibly appreciate. Native and European congratulated each other ; mothers folded their darling children to their breasts ; and an earnest prayer of thanksgiving arose to Heaven. For Outram and Havelock, it seemed at that moment, that a draught of immortality had been drunk from the Divine stream ; they are now in their honored graves ; the memory of their gallant deeds dwells, in sincere gratitude, in the hearts of the survivors of that Garrison ; and, as companions in arms on earth, it is the earnest prayer of all that they may be companions of angels in heaven. Stars of the battle-field, where the sword and bayonet glittered in the charge and death-fires flashed, they calmly smiled at the foe, wrenched from the cowardly rebels the sceptre of monarchy which they had assumed, and dashed them into the slough of despond, which they had themselves prepared for the British.