Excerpt from Love Besieged: A Romance of the Defense of Lucknow We in England must never forget the fixed, immutable characteristics of the Indian race. It is well, therefore, that the memory of the past should not be allowed to die out. This end I have had in view in selecting the Siege of Lucknow as the background of a story in which an attempt has been made to picture the circumstances and conditions of the time, the character and methods of the mutineers, the influence of caste, the treachery of which the native is capable and the loyalty which upon occasion he can show, and the heroism, the fortitude, the unflinching devotion of the defenders. For colour I have gone to the pages of Mr Commissioner Gubbins, Major Wilson, Colonel Inglis, whose graphic accounts glow with actuality. Colonel S. B Malleson has, in his History of the Indian Mutiny, brought together most of the salient facts in connection with the siege, and Mr Archibald Forbes' account of the entry of the relief force under Havelock can scarcely be bettered. To the authors of Defence of Lucknow, by a Staff Officer, and A Lady's Diary of the Siege I am also under an obligation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.