It was in Cawnpore on my way up country, during the Prince of Wales's
tour through India, that there were shown to me some curious and
interesting mementoes of the siege of Lucknow. The friend in whose
possession they were was near Havelock as he sat before his tent in the
short Indian twilight, a short time before the advance on Lucknow made
by him and Outram in September 1857. Through the gloom of the falling
twilight there came marching towards the General a file of Highlanders
escorting a tall, gaunt Oude man, on whose swarthy face the lamplight
struck as he salaamed before the General Lord Sahib. Then he extracted
from his ear a minute section of quill sealed at both ends. The
General's son opened the strange envelope forwarded by a postal service
so hazardous, and unrolled a morsel of paper which seemed to be covered
with cabalistic signs. The missive had been sent out from Lucknow by
Brigadier Inglis, the commander of the beleaguered garrison of the
Lucknow Residency, and its bearer was the stanch and daring scout,
Ungud. As I write the originals of this communication and of others
which came in the same way lie before me; and two of those missives in
their curious mixture of characters may be found of interest to readers
of to-day.