‘Sept. 9, 1857.
‘I need not say how I long for tidings from India. Most especially do I desire news of Havelock’s precious little army. Upon its success, humanly speaking, may hang the safety of all our beloved ones in India.’
TO MRS. HAMILTON.
‘Sept. 19, 1857.
‘We are longing for our letters, but I do not think we shall get them till Tuesday. Dearest Mother tries not to think more of India than she can help, and has, I am glad to say, given up reading the papers, so we only give her the good part of the news verbally. I could not endure to be kept in the dark myself. I go every day to fetch the papers. I half live on them, and would far rather go without a meal than not see them.... We heard from poor dear Mrs. Thornhill to-day. She hopes that Henry and his wife are in Lucknow. Such a hope is not worth much, one would think.’
TO MISS B. F. TUCKER.
‘Sept. 21, 1857.
‘God be with our brave and beloved ones! My heart feels very low—worse than before the letters arrived. We hide from dear Grandmamma that Mirzapore is threatened. She only knows that the troops are there; not why they have been sent. N—— W—— has sent his dear wife and children to Calcutta. He feels so desolate without them, but takes the separation as a lesson from his Merciful Father to set his affections more on things above.... Does not your heart sicken for Lucknow?’
All through England hearts were ‘sickening for Lucknow,’ at this time. But the Cawnpore-like catastrophe, dreaded for Lucknow, did not come. The rescuing party mercifully arrived in time. As months went by, the Mutiny was stamped out from end to end of India; and no second Tucker was added to the roll of England’s martyrs there.
Just before the outbreak Mr. Henry Carre Tucker seems to have requested that some copies of his sister’s books might be sent out to him for distribution: and an interesting letter was written by her on the subject to Messrs. Gall and Inglis.