I marched to Cawnpore with Army Head-Quarters.  Sir William Peel, who was slowly recovering from his wound, was of the party.  We reached Cawnpore on the 17th, and the next day I said good-bye to my friends on the Chief’s staff.  Peel and I dined together on the 19th, when to all appearances he was perfectly well, but on going into his room the next morning I found he was in a high fever, and had some suspicious-looking spots about his face.  I went off at once in search of a doctor, and soon returned with one of the surgeons of the 5th Fusiliers, who, to my horror—­for I had observed that Peel was nervous about himself—­exclaimed with brutal frankness the moment he entered the room, ‘You have got small-pox.’  It was only too true.  On being convinced that this was the case, I went to the chaplain, the Rev. Thomas Moore, and told him of Peel’s condition.  Without an instant’s hesitation, he decided the invalid must come to his house to be taken care of.  That afternoon I had the poor fellow carried over, and there I left him in the kind hands of Mrs. Moore, the padre’s wife, who had, as a special case, been allowed to accompany her husband to Cawnpore.  Peel died on the 27th.  On the 4th May I embarked at Calcutta in the P. and O. steamer Nubia, without, alas! the friend whose pleasant companionship I had hoped to have enjoyed on the voyage.

[Illustration:  PLAN TO ILLUSTRATE THE SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF LUCKNOW, March, 1858]

[Footnote 1:  The Infantry portion of the army was divided into three divisions, commanded respectively by Outram, Lugard, and Walpole.  This was exclusive of Franks’s column, which joined at Lucknow and made a fourth division.  The Artillery was placed under Archdale Wilson, and the Engineers under Robert Napier.  Sir Colin’s selection of Commanders caused considerable heart-burnings, especially amongst the senior officers who had been sent out from England for the purpose of being employed in the field.  But, as the Chief explained to the Duke of Cambridge, the selection had been made with the greatest care, it having been found that ’an officer unexperienced in war in India cannot act for himself ... it is quite impossible for him to be able to weigh the value of intelligence ... he cannot judge what are the resources of the country, and he is totally unable to make an estimate for himself of the resistance the enemy opposed to him is likely to offer.’  Sir Colin wound up his letter as follows:  ’I do not wish to undervalue the merits of General or other officers lately arrived from England, but merely to indicate to your Royal Highness the difficulties against which they have to contend.  What is more, the state of things at present does not permit of trusting anything to chance, or allowing new-comers to learn, except under the command of others.’—­Shadwell’s ‘Life of Lord Clyde.’]

[Footnote 2:  The late Captain Oliver Jones, who published his experiences under that title.]