The terms were accepted. The little garrison had done all that flesh and blood and gallant souls could do. The survivors of the siege embarked in boats on the Ganges, prepared by Nana's orders. The women and children were all aboard, the men were following. At that moment a bugle sounded; instantly the straw awnings of the boats burst into flame, and the native rowers leaped out. A fire of grape and musketry poured down on the frail craft, and continued till Tantia Topee, Nana's lieutenant, sounded the "Cease fire!" Then the survivors, 125 Englishwomen and children, many of them sorely wounded, were collected and driven back to the town. One only of the boats escaped, drifting down the Ganges, a target for innumerable marksmen on both banks. A dozen men landed to drive off the assailants; in their absence the boat was captured, and those on board--sixty-five men, twenty-five women, and four children--were haled back to Cawnpore. The men were shot on the spot; the women and children were crammed into the prison-house with the others. Cholera and dysentery soon carried off eighteen women and seven children--more fortunate than their companions. [Illustration: _From a Photograph_} {_by Bourne & Shepherd, Calcutta._ SUTTEE CHOWRA GHAT. On the banks of the Ganges; the scene of the first massacre of Cawnpore.] [Illustration: _Baron Marochetti, Sc._} {_Photo by Bourne & Shepherd._ THE STATUE ERECTED OVER THE WELL AT CAWNPORE Into which the bodies of the English women and children were thrown after the massacre in the prison.] [Illustration: _From a Photograph_} {_by Bourne & Shepherd._ BENARES FROM THE GANGES. Benares is the sacred city of the Hindoos. It contains innumerable temples and shrines, the most sacred being that of Bisheswar, dedicated to the worship of Shiva; its dome is overlaid with gold. To Buddhists the stupa now called Damek, three miles to the north of Benares, erected on the spot where Buddha first expounded his doctrine, is a place of pilgrimage. But the most prominent object from the river is the Mohammedan mosque built by Aurungzeb, son of Shah Jehan. Its slender minarets are 147 feet high.]