During the cold weather of 1856-57 I spent some weeks in travelling with my family in the country to the east of Benares, on the Calcutta road. We left the highroad and made our way, as I have already mentioned, to Rohtas Gurh, a famous abandoned fortress on the top of a hill. In some of the villages to which I went to preach the Gospel the bitterest feeling was shown, especially by young men, towards our rule and religion. the feeling manifested was so bitter that I were prepared to lay violent hands on me. remarking more than once, as I returned to the tent weary and worn out in body and mind, that a strange feeling was coming over the people, which I had never previously observed, and that I feared dark days were approaching.

In one place thought they

I remember

THE OUTBREAK AND PROGRESS OF THE MUTINY.

At Berhampore, more than a hundred miles above Calcutta, and Barrackpore, a few miles from it, the Sepoys broke into open mutiny, which led to the leaders being executed and their regiments disbanded. The outbreak at these places made a painful impression on the entire English community, and created deep anxiety. That anxiety was increased by the reports received from day to day of the mutinous spirit shown by the Sepoys all over the country. We were told of midnight meetings, insolent conduct, and incendiary fires. The most sanguine could not but fear that we were entering a calamitous period. The most hopeful were those officers who had been long with native regiments, and were sure that whatever others might do, their men would remain staunch.

At length, on May roth, the storm burst out at Meerut

THE RISING AT MEERUT.

183

in all its fury. I cannot enter on a detailed account of the events of that sad, memorable day. I can only in a few words mention what took place. On the previous day 87 men of a native cavalry regiment had, before the whole garrison of the place, been put in irons for repeated persistent disobedience. Though there was a large European force a native guard was put over the prisoners, who were confined in a place close to their comrades. No precaution was taken against their rescue. On the evening of the next day, Sunday, as the Europeans were gathering for Church, the Sepoys rose, murdered their officers, hastened to the parade ground, liberated their imprisoned comrades, opened the jails, raised all the villainy of the native town, massacred the Christians whom they met, men, women, and children, set houses on fire, and then set out for Delhi, the great old imperial city. There they were welcomed by the titular king and his family, and there, as at Meerut, they murdered all the Christians on whom they could lay hold. By the mismanagement of the large European force at Meerut, a small portion of which was well able to cope with the Sepoys, they did not arrive on the scene of revolt till the Sepoys had done all the mischief on which they were bent, and had set out for Delhi.

That 10th of May we remember vividly. We had had our usual afternoon service with the native Christians. In the evening we walked out in the garden. The moon was shining in an unclouded sky. Hot though the weather was we enjoyed our quiet walk, talked of the services of the day, and the threatening appearance of affairs. Little did we think of the terrible scenes which were then being enacted at Meerut.

The outbreak at Meerut awoke as with a peal of the

loudest thunder the entire English community in India, and especially in Northern India, to a sense of imminent peril. We had hitherto lived in the enjoyment of profound security. There had been uneasiness on different occasions, when our power seemed imperilled by the disasters which overtook us in Afghanistan in 1841-42, and by the life and death struggle we had afterwards with the Sikhs. Our enemies were then watching for our fall, and the reasons for uneasiness at those times were stronger than the community generally were aware of. There had been also at different times uneasiness in reference to the Sepoys, but they came to be regarded as wilful children, who might be troublesome, but who would do us no harm. In our own country, among our own people, we could not have felt safer than we ordinarily did. At the travelling season we went about, pitched our tents in solitary spots, for weeks together perhaps did not see a white face, and were treated not only with courtesy, but generally with profound deference, as if we belonged to a superior race. The people in their obsequious fashion, and with their idolatrous views, would almost have given us divine honours. All at once we realized ourselves as living in the midst of a dense alien population. Our own trusted soldiers, serving under our banners, receiving our pay, and sworn to defend us, had risen against us; and with them as declared enemies, in whom could we confide? Our obsequious servants of yesterday might become our murderers to-day. We felt ourselves at bay, surrounded by a host who might any moment fall on us and destroy us.

THE OUTBREAK AT BENARES.

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A

CHAPTER XVII.

THE OUTBREAK AT BENARES.

T no place was the shock felt more severely than at Benares, where I was residing with my family. In no place was the danger greater. We were living in the suburbs of the most superstitious and fanatical city in the land. Again and again during the eighty years of our rule there had been riots in the city, professedly to avenge religious wrongs-riots so formidable, that they were quelled by military force. A very few years previous to 1857 the city was thrown into violent commo. tion, in consequence of new messing regulations in the jail, by which it was alleged, though without reason, the caste of the prisoners would be affected. The rowdy element, composed of those emphatically called budmash "evil-doers," persons ready for every mischief, was very strong. The Sepoys put in the forefront of their quarrel the plea that they were fighting for their religion, and where could they expect so much sympathy and help as in Kasee? Sir Henry Lawrence, writing some time previously about the mistakes committed in the management of the native army, named Benares as a place where fearful scenes would be witnessed in the event of a Sepoy rising. Intensely Hindu, though Benares be, it has, as we have already observed, a large

Muhammadan population, and in attacking us the Hindus could fully depend on their help.

Our danger was greatly increased by the vast disproportion between the native and European force—a disproportion so great, that apart from the danger of our neighbourhood to a great city, from which we might expect a host to pour out to attack us, it looked as if we were doomed to destruction. We had in Benares a Native Infantry regiment, which was believed to be tainted; a Sikh regiment, the temper of which was little known; and, a few miles off, an Irregular Cavalry regiment, composed, it was said, of a superior class of men, all, I believe, Muhammadans, but whom few could trust in the event of a rising. Our European force consisted of thirty artillery-men in charge of a battery of three guns. At the fort of Chunar, sixteen miles distant, there was a number of European soldier pensioners, of whom perhaps sixty or seventy might be effective. So unbounded had been the confidence in the Sepoys, that the artillerymen in Benares and the pensioners in Chunar were the only European force in the entire province of Benares under the Benares Commissioner, with a population of over ten millions; while in seven stations in the province there were native soldiers, chiefly infantry, but partly cavalry and artillery. Besides the English officers of the native regiments, and some half-dozen English civil officials, the only English people were missionaries of the Church, Baptist, and London Societies, and a few traders, while a few indigo planters were scattered in the country.

On the news of the Meerut mutiny reaching Benares, the civil and military authorities lost no time in consulting what should be done. The proposal that we should