known to us. Thus was destroyed, on the 2nd July, 1857, the fortification of Machhi Bhawan, and, with it, a considerable number of guns, besides ammunition and public stores, consisting of two large and two small mortars, three 18-pounder guns and five 9-pounders, two hundred and fifty barrels of gunpowder, and as many boxes of small arm ammunition and many lacs of percussion caps.
61. It is painful to relate the calamity which befell us at the commencement of the siege. Sir Henry Lawrence was mortally wounded at 9 A. M., on the 2nd July, by a piece of shell which nearly took off his left leg just below the thigh.[1] The shell burst in a room on the first storey of the north-east angle of the Residency, which was most exposed to the enemy's fire. Only the day previous another shell had fallen into the same apartment close to Sir Henry Lawrence and his Secretary, Sir George Couper, but without injury to either. Sir Henry had then been advised to abandon the room, which was, from its high position, more exposed to the enemy's fire, but he refused to do so, as he laughingly said that he did not believe the enemy had an artilleryman good enough to put another shell into that small room. He succumbed to his wound on the morning of the 4th July, in Doctor Fayrer's house, to which he had been removed, and the Government was thereby deprived of the services of a distinguished Statesman and one of its most illustrious servants.
"The pains of death are past;
Labor and sorrows cease,
And, life's long warfare closed at last,
His soul is found in peace.
Soldier of Christ! well done;
Praise be thy new employ;
And, while eternal ages run,
Rest in thy Saviour's joy."
Three of our boys, George Roberts, John Smith, and Richard Grueber, attended Sir Henry during his illness. The first named, who was the senior boy, rendered very great service to the Doctors (Fayrer, Partridge and Ogilvie) in procuring water for washing Sir Henry's wound, from a well in a very exposed position, and in affording such further aid as lay in his power.
62. The news of the death of our revered and beloved General cast a gloom over all ranks and classes of the beleaguered garrison. We mourned the loss of a Chief whose unwearying efforts to protect the lives and fortunes of those committed to his care had endeared him to all who
- ↑ It was from a shell fired from the 8-inch howitzer, which was taken by the rebels at the battle of Chinhut, that Sir Henry received his death wound!
