George Bruce Malleson

“ The idea of capitulation was revolting to every soldier of the garrison. Sir Hugh Wheeler, the first to speak, protested strongly against it, and he was supported by the younger combatants. The Náná, they felt, was not to be trusted. To him they owed their actual position. But Moore and Whiting, who had borne the brunt of the defence, thought otherwise. It would be impossible, they knew, to prolong the defence. Their ammunition and their food supplies were alike all but exhausted. The one chance of saving the women and children was to capitulate. For themselves they cared not. ”

“ The wind no longer bore to the British Camp the customary sound of the booming of heavy guns against the Residency. It was plain that the rebels were concentrating their resources for a stern defence of the city. Havelock gave the men their breakfasts, and then moved forward. It was half-past eight. For some time no enemy was visible. But as the troops approached the Álambagh, some infantry appeared on their flanks, and they soon had evidence that the rebels were prepared to receive them at and near that walled garden. ”

“ If the higher castes are the more influential, the lower are the more numerous. The attempt to give representation to mere numbers would then, before long, provoke religious jealousies and antipathies which would inevitably find a solution in blood. A rising caused by such an innovation on prevailing customs would be infinitely more dangerous than the Mutiny of 1857. Concession to noisy agitation on the part of the ruling power would place the lives, the fortunes, the interests of the loyal classes of India at the mercy of the noisiest; most corrupt, and most despised race in India. ”

“ But before I proceed to this summing up, I am anxious to say a word or two to disabuse the minds of those who may have been influenced by rumours current at the period as to the nature of the retaliation dealt out to the rebels by the British soldiers in the hour of their triumph. I have examined all those rumours — I have searched out the details attending the storming of Dehlí, of Lakhnao, and of Jhánsí — and I can emphatically declare that, not only was the retaliation not excessive, it did not exceed the bounds necessary to ensure the safety of the conquerors. Unfortunately war is war. ”

“ In the history of the world there is no more wonderful story than that of the making of the British Empire in India. It was not the result of deliberate design. The early English settlers on the coasts of India thought only of protecting the small tracts of territory conceded to them against aggression from native princes and European rivals. For a long time they never dreamt even of questioning the sovereign rights of the native princes who exercised authority in the territories nearest to their possessions. ”

“ In a bay of the wall of the Chárbágh garden stood Neill and his Aide-de-Camp, waiting until Outram's flank movement should make itself felt. On the other side of the road, mounted, was young Havelock.
The duel between Maude's guns and those of the rebels had raged for some time. The enemy had all the advantage of fighting under cover, and they had made deadly havoc with Maude's gunners. One after another these had fallen, their places being supplied from the infantry behind them. So great was the pressure that Maude and his Lieutenant, Maitland, were doing the work themselves. ”

“ Just at the moment, when the British were well-nigh exhausted, 150 men of the Camel Corps came up and turned the tide. At the moment the rebels had advanced within twenty yards of the battery and of the outpost tents, the latter full of men struck down by the sun. Another quarter of an hour and there would have been a massacre. But the timely arrival of the Camel Corps saved the day, converted defeat into victory, and enabled Sir Hugh Rose to close with glory the first part of his dashing Central Indian campaign. ”

“ Nowhere in the world does rumour rise so easily or take such exaggerated forms as in India. It appeals to a people singularly simple, and yet singularly superstitious. The fables of their religion teach them to believe in the supernatural, and for them the improbable is an ever-living power. When, then, rumour told them that the European troops at the station were preparing for them the fate of their manacled comrades, they believed the rumour. Hence they determined to rise and rescue those comrades whilst the Europeans should be unarmed and unsuspicious. ”

“ THE MARCH TO DEHLÍ.
The Commander-in-Chief in India, General George Anson, though he had had but a slight experience of the Bengal sipáhí, possessed in an eminent degree the gift of common sense. If he did not penetrate the mysteries which baffled men who had been trained in India, and who had spent their lives with the sipáhís, no blame can on that account attach to him. He was conscientious, painstaking, self-sacrificing, and gave to the work which had been entrusted to him all his time and all his capacity. ”

“ I entreat them to realise that the Western system of representation is hateful to the Eastern races which inhabit the continent of India; that it is foreign to their traditions, their habits, their modes of thought. The people of India are content with the system which Akbar founded, and on the principles of which the English have hitherto mainly governed. Our Western institutions, not an absolute success in Europe, are based upon principles with which they have no sympathy. The millions of Hindustan desire a master who will carry out the principles of the Queen's proclamation of 1858. ”

“ That evening Havelock received information that Náná Sáhib, at the head, it was said, of 7000 men of all arms, would oppose his entry into Kánhpur on the morrow. But other information, to the effect that there were still alive in that station some 200 women and children of British blood, who had escaped the massacre of the 27th of June, cheered him and his men. 'With God's help, men,' he exclaimed, 'we shall save them, or every man of us die in the attempt.' Such was his spirit, such, also, the spirit of the men he commanded. ”

“ It would serve no good purpose to dwell at length upon the incompetent action which threw the middle piece between Calcutta and Kánhpur into a condition of unparalleled disorder, and delayed the advance of the troops for which the heart of the gallant Havelock was preying upon itself. Under the weight of the responsibility thrust upon him the mind of General Lloyd vacillated like the pendulum of a clock. When, on the 22d, the main body of the 5th Fusiliers arrived off Dánápur, the pendulum was at the left corner, and he would not order them to disembark. ”

“ No one loved a brave man more than Outram. The offer made by Kavanagh was an offer after his own heart. But, humane beyond the ordinary run of men, he hesitated to expose a fellow-creature to almost certain death. Whatever doubts he may have entertained on this head were, however, dissipated after his first interview with Kavanagh. In him he recognised a man whose innate pluck and iron resolution would carry him through all dangers. ”

“ So great was the faith of the officers in their own men, and in British superiority, that those at Dehlí never for a moment believed that the outbreak was aught but an isolated mutiny, which would be speedily quelled. The European force at Mírath must be, they thought, on the heels of the mutinied sipáhís, and whilst their own native brigade would show them a bold front the Carabineers and 60th Rifles would assail them from behind. ”

“ At all events he persisted in waiting until another tumbril had been exploded by the enemy's fire, and until their cavalry, gathering courage from his inactivity, charged Pearson's half-battery. Cool and collected, Pearson awaited their approach, whilst the company of the Europeans nearest to him rose to their feet, their muskets levelled. ”

“ The cries of helpless women and children, ruthlessly butchered, had gone home to the heart of every individual soldier, and made this cause his own. There was not an Englishman in those ranks, from first to last, who would have consented to turn his back on Dehlí without having assisted in meting out to those bloody rebels the retributive justice awarded them by his own conscience, his country, and his God. It was this spirit that buoyed them up through all the hardships of the siege ”

“ On the 21st the restoration of regular rule was announced in the appointment of Colonel Burn to be Governor the city. The day following John Nicholson died from the effects of the wounds he had received on the 14th. He had lingered in agony for eight days; but, as fortunate as Wolfe, he had lived long enough to witness the complete success of the plans to the attempting and accomplishing of which he had so much contributed. He died with the reputation of being the most successful administrator, the greatest soldier, and the most perfect master of men in India. ”

“ He was joined, as he advanced, by a battery of artillery, which Pearson had manned, experimentally, with men of Eurasian extraction, and which on this occasion rendered excellent service. The prompt advance of the force, the celerity with which it had been transformed from a heterogeneous mass of individuals sleeping or lounging into a living machine, upset the calculations of the rebels, and the British cavalry, gallantly led by Ouvry, Probyn, Watson, and the guns, splendidly managed by Bourchier, Turner, and Pearson, completed the confusion which this celerity had produced. ”

“ From the very first the sufferings of the garrison were intense. The heat was great, the space was scanty, the fire of the guns of the rebels was incessant, the absolutely necessary exposure of the officers and men to that fire was deadly. From the first day the casualties were considerable. Then rose the question how to dispose of the dead. There was a well, outside the intrenchment, not far from the unfinished barracks. ”

“ Colonel Mitchell might as well have spoken to the winds. He told his native officers what Sir John Hearsey at Barrackpur, and what commanding officers all over the country subsequently told theirs, but he told it in vain. There is no terror like a religious terror; and there can be no doubt that the astute fomentors of the revolt — the men of Oudh, of the North-west Provinces, and of the Bundelkhand — had so saturated the minds of the sipáhís at Barrackpur and elsewhere with a real terror, that not all the words of the most gifted men on earth would have sufficed to expel it. ”

“ Rumours of all kinds filled the air — the rumour that the outbreak of Manghal Pándi had been preconcerted, but had broken out too soon; another that the arrival of the 19th would be the signal for a general rising; a third, a day or two later, that a conference between emissaries from the 34th and the 19th had taken place, on the 30th, at Barsat, one march from Barrackpur. It is probable that these rumours were true. But the mutinous army had no leader at Barrackpur, and for want of a leader, and in the presence of divided counsels, action collapsed. ”

“ Neill entered the fort. He was aware that the task before him was a heavy one; that to restore order the means at his disposal were scanty. In his journey from Banáras he had noticed that the entire country along the Ganges was in a state of anarchy. He now found the fort invested: the troops who mainly formed the garrison — the Sikhs of the same regiment he had laid his hand upon at Banáras — coaxed into the appearance of subordination: confusion and disorder in every department: an unchecked enemy without, vacillation ruling within. ”