The rebels, encouraged by their apparent inactivity, and mistaking its cause, assembled in great force on the Oude side of the river, and threatened to cross at two different places; while, on the other bank, the small British force from Calpee was exposed to the attacks of the Gwalior Contingent. This compulsory delay was equally trying to all; but what could be done with an “army” of seven hundred men, when opposed to thirty-seven thousand armed and disciplined soldiers? Every day the general’s telegrams became more urgent and importunate. He was prepared “to fight anything and at any odds;” but he knew that it would be madness to advance to Lucknow with the mere handful of men under his command. There were twenty thousand rebels between him and that town; and though the fact was well established, that the Asiatics were unable to withstand the fierce onset of the smallest number of British troops, yet no victory was gained without a certain amount of loss on our part; and this loss, added to the ravages of disease, would have caused his little army to melt away before he reached Lucknow. On the 21st of August, he announced that, if he were not speedily reinforced, he would abandon the enterprize as hopeless, and return to Allahabad, from which he had begun his career of victory about two months before. Meanwhile, he continued to strengthen his position at Cawnpore, and to send his sick and wounded to Allahabad, so that all who remained might be able to take the field. It would be difficult to say which of the two—Havelock or Inglis—was most to be pitied. The former, after he was compelled to retreat, wrote a note, which the messenger contrived to convey to Inglis in safety. Nothing was concealed; his failure was freely admitted, and he concluded by saying, “You must aid us in every way, even to cutting your way out; if we can’t force our way in. We have only a small force.” Inglis received this note on the 15th, and on the 23rd the messenger, who was seven days on the way, and had many narrow escapes, brought back his reply. The garrison at Lucknow was reduced to the last extremity: within the walls of the Residency were 120 sick and wounded men; 220 women, and 230 children; their stock of provisions was almost exhausted; officers and civilians had to toil from morning to night like common labourers; cholera and the bullets of the enemy were gradually thinning their numbers: but amid all their privations and sufferings they never dreamed of surrendering. It was better to die within their entrenchments than to be massacred in cold blood by the ruthless foe without; so they continued to hold out till the end of the month, when hope again began to dawn upon the little army of rescue at Cawnpore. Two thousand men belonging to different regiments were on their way from Calcutta to join them; and the Naval Brigade, which was composed of five hundred “blue jackets,” under Captain Peel, who had already distinguished himself in the Crimea,