With the assistance of the Rajah of Bithoor,
Cawnpore is safe. His example is almost certain to be followed by
almost all the other great landowners. No; it is quite bad enough
that we have to face a Sepoy mutiny; I cannot believe that we are
likely to have a general rising on our hands. If we do--" and he
stopped.
"If we do it is all up with us, Major; there is no disguising that.
However, we need not look at the worst side of things. Well, I will
go with you to the orderly room, and will talk with you about the
hospital scheme, mention that there is a rumor of cholera, and so
on, and ask if I can't have a part of the courthouse; then we can
walk across there together, and see what arrangement had best be
made."
The following day brought another dispatch from the Colonel, saying
that the rumors as to Delhi were confirmed. The regiments there
had joined the Meerut mutineers, had shot down their officers, and
murdered every European they could lay hands on; that three officers
and six noncommissioned officers, who were in charge of the arsenal,
had defended it desperately, and had finally blown up the magazine
with hundreds of its assailants. Three of the defenders had reached
Meerut with the news.
Day by day the gloom thickened. The native regiments in the Punjaub
rose as soon as the news from Meerut and Delhi reached them, but
there were white troops there, and they were used energetically and
promptly. In some places the mutineers were disarmed before they
broke out into open violence; in other cases mutinous regiments
were promptly attacked and scattered.
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