The mob hesitated for a moment. The stairs were narrow and steep, only admitting one at a time. An English sahib with a formidable pike was at the top. Then one more courageous than the rest crept up with drawn sword, while the others supported him from behind. A rapid thrust from the pike pierced his arm, and caused him to retire precipitately. Soon another ventured, and, more dexterous than the last, managed to evade the first thrust and to seize the pointed end of the pike. The brave magistrate replied to this manœuvre by dropping the shaft on the head of the staircase and, throwing his whole weight on it, jerked the point upwards. His assailant retired with his hands cut to the bone.

The howling mob turned heel also, after firing pistol volleys up the staircase, and commenced to smash the furniture, pillage the house and stables, and to murder any servants who interfered. An hour passed without any further attack-an hour of terrible suspense for Mr. Davis and the little party on the roof, who could only imagine the pandemonium downstairs by the crash of broken glass and furniture, and the shouting of Wazir Ali's myrmidons. The gallant defender of the staircase did not dare to move from his position, and one of the ayahs who ventured to peep over the parapet was shot through the arm.

Then the tumult suddenly ceased. Soon afterwards stealthy steps were heard upon the stairs, and, prepared for any cunning ruse of the enemy, Mr. Davis grasped his trusty spear and awaited the next attack. But this time it was the scared face of a faithful old servant, who held in front of him a rescued teapot as a sign of friendliness. He brought the welcome news of

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Wazir Ali's retreat from the house. The arrival of fifteen armed policemen at the same time was a substantial reinforcement which relieved Mr. Davis from the intense strain of the situation.

The murder of the Resident had been the signal for all of Wazir Ali's adherents to rally round him and commence a general attack on the Europeans in the cantonment, some of whom concealed themselves in the fields of maize close by, while others fled to Bitabûr, the military station ten miles from Benares, and gave the alarm. The general commanding, on the first intelligence, started off with his whole force. It was the approach of the British cavalry which drew off Wazir Ali's gang from the magistrate's house.

The rest of the story is soon told. Wazir Ali's men made a feeble attempt to harass the advanced guard, which arrived about eleven o'clock, but the infantry and guns, which followed soon afterwards, forced them to fall back on Madhu Das's Gardens. Here they made a last stand, but before the sun had set their resistance was broken, and the chief conspirators had fled to the hills. The only partakers in the miserable plot who played their part with any sort of distinction were Shionath and five of his gang of Bankas, who held at bay an overwhelming force of British troops for five hours, and then sallied out sword in hand to meet their fate like men.

Wazir Ali reached the Nepal Terai, and was joined by a few thousand adherents. A few defeats caused them to desert, and he was driven to take refuge at Jaipur. He was then extradited and brought as prisoner to Calcutta. After many years of close con

finement in Fort William, he was sent to the State prison at Vellore, where he died.

Mr. Davis, whose clearness of judgment and personal courage probably averted a great disaster to the whole of British India, received only a formal letter of thanks from the Calcutta Council during the absence of the Marquis Wellesley at the seat of war in the south. He died in England in 1819 after many years of brilliant service as one of the directors of the East India Company.

Madhu Das's Gardens, the head-quarters first of Warren Hastings, and afterwards of the ex-Nawab Wazir Ali, in those stirring times, is an old pleasureground of the Mogul period, laid out with stone waterchannels for irrigation and a square platform with a fountain in the centre. For the accommodation of the owner and his zenana there were airy pavilions in the centre of the four walls which surrounded it. The gardens are now in native hands, the waterchannels are dried up, and the quarters are seldom occupied.

Except by an occasional riot between low-class Hindus and Muhammadans, such as has been described in the last chapter, and some trouble with a native regiment in the days of the Mutiny, Benares has not disturbed the pax Britannica since 1799.

From the Hindu point of view, the city has flourished exceedingly under British rule. Its temples and shrines have multiplied, and the strong arm of the law now prevents the desecration and destruction to which they were subject in Muhammadan times. The railways have largely increased the numbers of pilgrims who throng the ghâts and holy places, and

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have thus added to the offerings which enrich the Brahmin priesthood.

British influence has undoubtedly made for order, decency, cleanliness, and general sanitation in the city. But its effect on the foundations of Hindu beliefs is not very evident in Benares, the Rome of Hinduism, unless the spirit of exclusiveness which has sprung up of late years should be regarded as a sign of the Brahmins' alarm at the increasing influence of Christianity. When Sherring wrote his Sacred City of the Hindus, in the middle of the last century, he was allowed access to the most sacred places, which are now entirely closed to Europeans, even to the few who claim admission within the pale of the Hindu religion.

Benares has not ceased to be one of the great centres of the intellectual life of India, held in love and veneration by all Hindus; but the orthodox Brahmin looks askance at the efforts of Hindu propagandists, like Swami Vivekananda, who would strengthen resistance to outside influences by enlarging the borders of Hinduism.

The Hindu monasteries of Benares are still resorted to by students from all parts of India, for the education imparted by Brahmin Pandits, totally ignorant of modern research, and regarding as worthless all knowledge not contained in Hindu sacred literature. On the other hand, there is the extraordinary spectacle of a college for Hindus, supported both by Indians and Europeans, with English men and women expounding Hindu philosophy and religion to Hindus, and seeking to re-state the ancient Vedic wisdom on a basis of modern science.

Whether the Hindu Central College at Benares will survive the remarkable personality of its leading spirit, Mrs. Besant, may well be questioned, but there is no doubt that Hinduism will continue to be profoundly modified by the inflow of Western ideas. There can be no greater mistake than to consider Hinduism as so many immutable customs and forms of ritual and belief, which may be uprooted, but cannot be trained or adapted.

Just as thousands of years ago the Vedic Rishis, Vasishtha and Vishwamitra, represented two opposite schools, one of rigid orthodoxy and exclusiveness, the other of tolerance and progressive thought, so to-day there is, on the one side, the Brahmin of the old school, jealous of his social privileges, and guarding the ancient forms of his religion from the taint of innovation; and, on the other side, the Hindu who seeks to adjust the canons of his faith to social changes and the progress of human knowledge.

The strength of Hinduism has always lain, not in its exclusiveness, but in its extraordinary power. of

adaptation and assimilation. It is waste of energy for Christians to inveigh merely against Hindu superstition, idolatry, and caste. It is rather by sympathetic study of Hinduism in all its aspects that we shall learn to reach the hearts of the people, as our great Teacher Idid on the shores of Galilee.