the regiment, who had displayed the greatest courage and humanity in bringing in and attending to the wounded. In two months the Highlanders had fought twelve battles; in four days they had lost _one-third_ of their number; their march through the streets was like a march through a sea of fire; but onward they went, dauntless, though not unscathed. And now they are within the walls of the Residency, where the ladies are pressing around them, and rendering thanks to heaven for their deliverance, and yielding their babes to the fond caresses of those stern warriors whose eyes, still glaring with the fury of battle, are soon suffused with tears, as they restore them to their mothers and turn aside to talk of comrades who have fallen, or of the dear ones they have left behind. The Rachels of Lucknow had no occasion that night to weep for their children because they were not; a strong hand and a mighty arm had brought them deliverance; and many a lip trembled with the grateful prayer of the Hebrew warrior: “Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord! but unto Thy name do we give glory.” [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XVIII. “LUCKNOW” KAVANAGH AND THE VICTORIA CROSS. The Siege of Lucknow forms one of the most interesting episodes in the history of the Indian Mutiny. No event connected with the war excited a deeper interest in this country, and it is impossible, even after the lapse of nine years, to reflect on the gallant defence of a small body of soldiers and civilians shut up within the Residency, the patient endurance of the women, and the heroic efforts to effect their deliverance, without a certain thrill of emotion. Among the many who distinguished themselves at this critical period, a prominent place is held by T. Henry Kavanagh, an Irish gentleman belonging to the uncovenanted service, who happened to be stationed at Lucknow with his wife and children. The report of the massacres at other stations induced the Kavanaghs to remove from their own house to two rooms in the Post Office near the Residency, and these they continued to occupy during all the privations and miseries of the subsequent siege, and until the final rescue. As soon as the native regiments mutinied, the small garrison of Europeans at Lucknow, under the command of Sir Henry Lawrence, prepared to defend themselves to the last: provisions were collected, the fortifications strengthened, and the civilians enrolled into companies of combatants. Before the middle of June, 1857, the whole province of Oude had cast off its allegiance to the British Crown; the English residents had perished or betaken themselves to flight; Lucknow alone remained, like a mighty rock, with the British flag displayed on its summit, dashing back the waves of insurrection and mutiny. All the rage of the rebels was concentrated against it: again and again they advanced to the attack; but the gallant band of defenders, though weakened by