could reach Lucknow, and he had not more than twelve hundred men able to march. This number might be diminished by one-fourth, as he would require a convoy of three hundred men to escort the sick and wounded. It was a severe struggle, but the conclusion was irresistible: the garrison at Lucknow could not be rescued from the fifty thousand rebels that environed them on every side by Havelock’s available force, which fell short of the full complement of a single regiment. There was no help for it; he must retrace his steps to Cawnpore, and wait there for reinforcements. He was not the man to hesitate in the path of duty; the order was given to fall back on Oude, where his army spent the night. The Highlanders and Fusiliers, flushed with their recent successes, and confident in their own courage, listened to this order with dismay. The road to Lucknow was before them, and why should the general refuse them permission to advance? Did he distrust their courage? They had stood by him in seven battles, and won him as many victories. In such moments of enthusiasm, men’s feelings are strung to the highest pitch; rough-bearded soldiers were seen to wipe the tears from their eyes when, for the first time, they turned their backs upon the enemy. No doubt Havelock felt it as much as any soldier under his command; but he was a man who never allowed feeling to interfere with duty, and when he had once made up his mind nothing could swerve him from his purpose. The beginning of the month of August was gloomy in the extreme; the garrison at Lucknow, with the massacre of Cawnpore fresh in their memories to remind them of the fate that awaited them if they fell into the hands of the bloodthirsty wretches who hemmed them in on every side, fought as the Greeks fought at Thermopylæ, and chose rather to bury themselves beneath the ruins than surrender. It may be that Havelock suffered more than they did: his heart bled for them; he was prepared to make any sacrifice to save them; but their safety depended on his having a sufficient army to effect their rescue. Neile behaved like a gallant soldier: every man who could be spared from Cawnpore was sent to his aid, and every man who came was welcomed as a treasure. Gradually the little army swelled in numbers till it reached an efficient strength of 1400 men, which it never exceeded; but there were no cowardly, treacherous natives in the ranks, and the general and his soldiers had the fullest confidence in one another.