“And could you always persuade them that you
were in earnest?” Dick asked.
Harry meditated. “Well, I am not quite
sure about that, Dick; but then, you see, I was never
quite sure myself that I was in earnest, and that’s
rather a drawback, you know.”
“But what would you do, Harry, supposing you
were really quite in earnest, and she laughed in your
face and told you you were a boy?” Dick asked.
“I expect,” the midshipman said, laughing,
“I should kiss her straight off, and say that
as I was a boy she couldn’t object.”
“Oh, nonsense,” Dick said testily; “I
want advice, and you talk bosh!”
The midshipman winked confidentially at the moon,
there being no one else to wink at, and then said
gravely:
“I think, Dick, the right thing to do would
be to put your right hand on your heart, and hold
your left hand up, with the forefinger pointing to
the ceiling, and to say, ’Madam, I leave you
now. When years have rolled over our heads I
will return, and prove to you at once my affection
and my constancy.’”
Dick’s eyes opened to their widest, and it was
not until his friend went off in a shout of laughter
that he was certain that he was being chaffed; then,
with an exclamation of “Confound you, Harry!”
he made a rush at his comrade, who dodged his attack,
and darted off, closely pursued by Dick. And
as they dashed round the cupola and down the stairs
their light-hearted laughter—for Dick
soon joined in the laugh against himself—rose
on the evening air; and the tars, smoking their pipes
round the bivouac fires below, smiled as the sound
came faintly down to them, and remarked, “Them
there midshipmites are larking, just as if they were
up in the maintop.”
A SAD PARTING.
Sir Colin Campbell had considered it possible that
the enemy would, upon finding that the Residency was
relieved, and the prey, of whose destruction they
had felt so sure, slipped from between their fingers,
leave the city and take to the open, in which case
he would, after restoring order, have left a strong
body of troops in the city, and have set off in pursuit
of the rebels.
It soon became apparent, however, that the enemy had
no intention of deserting their stronghold. Lucknow
abounded with palaces and mosques, each of which had
been turned into a fortress, while every street was
barricaded, every wall loopholed. As from forty
thousand to fifty thousand men, including many thousands
of drilled soldiers, stood ready to defend the town,
foot by foot, it was clear that the fighting force
at Sir Colin Campbell’s command was utterly
inadequate to attempt so serious an operation as the
reduction of the whole city. To leave a portion
of the force would only have submitted them to another
siege, with the necessity for another advance to their
relief. The commander-in-chief therefore determined
to evacuate the Residency and city altogether, to carry
off the entire garrison, and to leave Lucknow to itself
until the reinforcements from England should arrive,
and he should be able to undertake the subjugation
of the city with a force adequate for the purpose.
