In Times of Peril | Page 9

hundred
and fifty miles distant.
"Had we better tell them inside?" the major asked.
"No," answered the colonel; "let them be happy for to-night; they will
know the news to-morrow. As they are breaking up, ask all the officers
to come round to the messroom; I will meet them there, and we can talk
the matter over; but let the ladies have one more quiet night; they will
want all their strength and fortitude for what is to come."
And so, clearing their brows, they went into the house and listened to
the music, and joined in the talk until ten o'clock struck and every one
got up to go, and so ended the last happy evening at Sandynugghur.
The next morning brought the news of the rising at Delhi, but it was not
till two days later that letters giving any details of these terrible events

arrived, and the full extent of the awful calamity was known.
The flame broke out at Meerut at seven o'clock in the evening of
Sunday, the 10th of May. On the previous day a punishment parade had
been held to witness the military degradation of a number of men of the
Third Native Cavalry, who had been guilty of mutinous conduct in
respect to the cartridges. The native regiments at the station consisted
of the Third Cavalry, the Eleventh and Twentieth Infantry; there were
also in garrison the Sixtieth Rifles, the Sixth Dragoon Guards, and two
batteries of artillery; a force amply sufficient, if properly handled, to
have crushed the native troops, and to have nipped the mutiny in the
bud. Unhappily, they were not well handled. The cantonments of
Meerut were of great extent, being nearly five miles in length by two in
breadth, the barracks of the British troops were situated at some
distance from those of the native regiments, and the action of the troops
was paralyzed by the incompetency of the general, an old man who had
lost all energy, and who remained in a state of indecision while the men
of the native regiments shot their officers, murdered all the women and
children, and the white inhabitants whose bungalows were situated at
their end of their cantonment, opened the jail doors, and after setting
fire to the whole of this quarter of Meerut, marched off toward Delhi,
unmolested by the British troops. Even then an orderly sent off with
dispatches to the officer commanding at Delhi, informing him of what
had happened, and bidding him beware, might have saved the lives of
hundreds of Englishmen and women, even if it were too late to save
Delhi; but nothing whatever was done; the English troops made a few
meaningless and uncertain movements, and marched back to their
barracks. No one came forward to take the lead. So the white troops of
Meerut remained stationary under arms all night, and the English
population of Delhi were left to their fate.
From Meerut to Delhi is thirty-two miles, and the mutineers of Meerut,
marching all night, arrived near the town at eight in the morning.
Singularly enough, the ancient capital of India, the place around which
the aspiration of Hindoos and Mohammedans alike centered, and where
the ex-emperor and his family still resided, was left entirely to the
guard of native troops; not a single British regiment was there, not a

battery of white troops. As the center of the province, a large white
population were gathered there-the families of the officers of the native
infantry and artillery, of the civil officers of the province, merchants,
bankers, missionaries, and others. As at all other Indian towns, the
great bulk of the white inhabitants lived in the cantonments outside the
town; had it not been for this, not one would have escaped the slaughter
that commenced as soon as the Third Cavalry from Meerut rode into
the town. The Fifty- fourth Native Infantry, who had hastily been
marched out to meet them, fraternized with them at once, and, standing
quietly by, looked on while their officers were murdered by the
cavalrymen. Then commenced a scene of murder and atrocity which is
happily without parallel in history. Suffice to say, that with the
exception of some half-dozen who in one way or other managed to
escape, the whole of the white population inside the walls of Delhi
were murdered under circumstances of the most horrible and revolting
cruelty. Had the news of the outbreak of Meerut been sent by a swift
mounted messenger, the whole of these hapless people would have had
time to leave the town before the arrival of the mutineers. Those in the
cantonments outside the city fared somewhat better. Some were killed,
but the greater part made their escape; and although many were
murdered on the way, either by villagers or