Chapter CCV

_Cornhill Magazine_ (September, 1868), and _Verses Written in India_ (Kegan Paul & Co., 1889). By permission of author and publishers.

The massacre which suggested this poem took place near Mohundi, in Oudh (June, 1857). The lives of all the English prisoners would have been spared had they consented to profess Mahometanism by repeating the usual short formula.

CCVI-CCVIII

_Indian Lyrics_ (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co., 1884). By permission of the author.

The Author’s Note on the second is as follows:--‘Over the well rises a pedestal supporting a statue in white marble--the Angel of Pity. Below is the inscription: _Sacred to the perpetual memory of a great company of Christian people, chiefly women and children, who near this spot were cruelly massacred by the followers of the rebel Nana Dhoondoo Punth of Bithoor; and cast, the dying with the dead, into the well below, on the 15th day of July 1857._’

As to the third,--

l. 7. _peepuls._ The peepul (or pepul) tree.

8. _poinsianas._ The _poinciana regia_, a flowering shrub
introduced from Madagascar.

CCIX-CCXI

All three appeared first in _The Times of India_, and are included in _Soldierin’_ (Bombay: Indian Textile Journal Co., 1899). By permission of author and publishers.

As to the second,--l. 28. _sangared._ Sangars are temporary stone shelters for riflemen.

As to the third,--During the operations in Tirah (1897) the pass of Saransar (or Saran Sur) was the retreat of the hillmen known as the Lakka Khels. On November 9, a reconnaissance in force was made up the pass. The firing from the heights was deadly and continuous, and, in the evening, when our troops were retreating down the pass, a small party of the 48th (Northamptonshire Regiment) under Second Lieutenant Macintyre and Colour-Sergeant Luck, were cut off and surrounded by the enemy. It was found impossible to save them, and the following morning their dead bodies were found together.

l. 9. _Talavera._ The 48th are known as ‘The Talavera Boys,’ having distinguished themselves at the battle of Talavera, in the Peninsular War (July 27 and 28, 1809).