soldiers. Of the remainder, 5400 were new levies, 55,150 were Najíbs, or men drilled and armed in the native fashion, some 4000 gunners, 800 belonged to the camel corps they had organised, whilst the armed followers of the talukdárs numbered 20,000. Such was the force which guarded the city the storming of which by Sir Colin Campbell I shall now briefly describe.
The city of Lakhnao stretches, in an irregular form, on the right bank of the Gúmtí for a length from east to west of nearly five miles. The extreme width of it on the western side is a mile and a half. The eastern side diminishes to the width of rather less than a mile. Two bridges, one of iron, the other of masonry, span the Gúmtí, whilst a canal of deep and rugged section, enclosing the city on the east and south sides, bears away to the south-west, leaving the approach there open, but intersected by ravines. Towards the north-east, where the canal joins the Gúmtí, its banks are naturally shelving and easy.
The strong positions held by the rebels within the city were the Kaisarbágh, a palace about 400 yards square, containing several ranges of buildings. It had been completed only in 1850, and was not originally fortified. The rebels, however, had greatly strengthened it. To the east of the Observatory, overlooking the river, were the Farhatbakhsh palace and the palaces adjoining, the Residency, the ruins of the Machchí Bhawan, the great Imámbárah, the Jamániabágh, the Shésh Mahall, Alí Naki's house, extending to the west along the banks of the river, the Musábágh, a mile and a half beyond it, the little Imámbárah, and a range of palaces stretching from the Kaisarbágh to the canal. Beyond the canal, on the east of the city, was the Martinière. Overlooking this and the eastern suburbs, on the brow of a table-land, stood the Dilkushá.
The rebels, profiting by their experience of the British
