A Narrative of the Siege of Delhi | Page 7

late wounding of their
field-officer, our men would have given no quarter. The Brigadier was
one of the very few officers in high command at the outbreak of the
Mutiny who were found wanting in the time of trial. His, no doubt, was
a hard task; but, had he shown the smallest aptitude to meet the crisis,
there would have been no difficulty, with the ample means at his
disposal, in disarming without bloodshed the whole native force at
Ferozepore, and so crushing the rebellion at that station.
Night came, and we still remained in line under arms without having
moved a foot from where we were halted. Conjectures were rife as to
what would next happen. Officers and men were grieved, no less than
annoyed, at the state of inaction in which we had been kept, and an
uneasy feeling prevailed that during the night the mutinous sepoys,
aided by the badmashes, or bad characters, who swarmed in the bazaars
and city of Ferozepore, would, under cover of the darkness, run riot
over the cantonment, without our being called on to interfere.
And so, unhappily, it came to pass. The native cavalry at about eight
o'clock marched down to our lines, and drew up on the right of the
regiment, the European artillery being on our left flank.
Soon after their arrival the arms were piled and the men fell out of the
ranks, some to lie down on the ground, others forming in groups and
discussing the strange events of the day.

Suddenly a light was seen in the direction of the cantonment, which
quickly turned into a blaze of fire. What new horror was this? Were our
houses to be gutted and burnt before our eyes without any attempt to
prevent such outrage?
The men, at the first appearance of fire, had sprung to their feet and
almost involuntarily seized their arms. Surely a detachment would be
sent to clear the cantonment of the incendiaries? Even this was not
done: the Brigadier was absent, or could not be found, and our Colonel
intimated to some officers who spoke to him on the subject that he
could give no orders without the chief's consent.
So, incredible though it may appear, we stood and watched the fires,
which followed each other in quick succession till the whole
cantonment seemed in a blaze, and the flames, darting up in every
direction, lighted up the surrounding country.
We could hear distinctly the shouts of the scoundrels, and pictured to
ourselves the black wretches holding high carnival among the burning
buildings and laughing at the white soldiers, who, with arms in their
hands, remained motionless in their own lines.
That night more than twenty houses were burnt to the ground. The
English church, we afterwards heard, was first fired, then the Roman
Catholic chapel, our mess-house, and nineteen other bungalows. The
sepoys, mostly of the 45th Native Infantry, attended by dozens of
badmashes, marched unchallenged through the station with lighted
torches fixed on long bamboo poles, with which they set fire to the
thatched roofs of the various houses.
All night long we lay by our arms, watching the destruction of our
property, and thankful only that the wives and children of our officers
and men were safe under our care, and not exposed to the fury of the
wretches engaged in their fiendish work.
Even after this long lapse of years, I cannot think of that night without
a feeling of shame. Here were 700 men, mostly veterans, of one of Her
Majesty's regiments, doomed to inaction through the blundering and

stupid perverseness of an old sepoy Brigadier. The same unhappy
events as those I have narrated occurred at the outbreak of the Mutiny
in three other stations in the Bengal Presidency.
The commanders would not act against their trusted sepoys, who, as in
our case, plundered, outraged, and destroyed all and everything that
came in their way.
May 14.--The morning of May 14 dawned, close and hot, not a breath
of wind stirring. The sun rose like a ball of fire, and shortly afterwards
we were startled by an explosion which shook the earth under our feet,
and sounded like a heavy peal of thunder in the still morning air.
Looking in the direction of the report, we saw on the far right side of
the cantonment a thick black column of smoke shoot up high into the
atmosphere. A quarter of an hour passed, and then another detonation
similar to the first sounded in our ears on the left rear flank, followed,
as before, by a dense cloud of smoke.
We said to ourselves: "Will the arsenal next be blown up?" In the fort
was stored an immense quantity of powder and munitions of war, and,
fearing that perhaps some rebel