Sixty Years a Queen Part 20

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Chevalier L. W. Desanges._} {_In the Victoria Cross Gallery, Crystal Palace._

CAPTAIN DIGHTON PROBYN AT AGRA.

In the action against the mutineers at Agra, in August 1857, Captain (now Lieut.-General Sir) Dighton Probyn distinguished himself by leading his squadron against an overwhelming ma.s.s of the enemy's infantry. He received the Victoria Cross for his gallantry on this occasion.]

[Sidenote: Loyalty of the Sikhs.]

But there was one factor essential to making the convulsion complete, and that was the co-operation of the Sikhs--the most warlike population of India--the people who, only eight years before, had inflicted on British arms what we must be honest enough to own as the defeat of Chilianwalla. While the rebellion was spreading like wildfire through the whole of the rest of the North-West, and blazing through Oude into Lower Bengal, while regiment after regiment was rising, shooting its officers, and joining the native population in pillage and ma.s.sacre of Christians, the Sikhs never wavered in fidelity to British rule. That was what saved the British Indian Empire--that, and the way in which British officials behaved in the hour of trial.

Of course, severe reflections have been pa.s.sed on those in command of European troops at Meerut and in the neighbourhood of Delhi for allowing the revolted regiments to pa.s.s unmolested from the former to the latter place. There was indecision shown, no doubt. The Commandant at Meerut telegraphed to Delhi what had occurred, and did no more. Next day the Mahomedans of Delhi rose and joined the Sepoys, and the Europeans in the Residency could only blow up their magazine to prevent it falling into the hands of the rebels. It is easy to sit in an elbow chair and p.r.o.nounce the opinion that if the authorities at Meerut had showed presence of mind the rebellion might have been quashed at the outset; but it is a fearful thing for soldiers to have to turn their arms suddenly against their comrades; and any hesitation or weakness shown on that occasion may be forgotten in the tribute due to the whole body of military and civil officers for their conduct in what followed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _G. Richmond, R.A._}

VISCOUNT CANNING, 1812-1862.

Governor-General and First Viceroy of India.]

[Ill.u.s.tration:

_From a Photograph_} {_by Gregory & Co., Strand._

TYPES OF OUR INDIAN CAVALRY.

1. Guide Cavalry.

2. 1st Bengal Cavalry.

3. 1st Punjab Cavalry.

4. Major, 11th Bengal Lancers.

5. 1st Contingent, India Horse.

6. 4th Bombay Poonah Horse.

7. 1st Madras Lancers.

8. 4th Contingent, Lancers (Hyderabad).]

[Sidenote: Lord Canning's Presence of Mind.]

Lord Canning played a splendid part. Of all moods of the human creature there is none so ungovernable as fear. The suddenness of the outbreak, the rapidity of its spread, the atrocious ma.s.sacres which marked its progress, created a wild panic in Calcutta and other European communities. Canning was a.s.sailed on all sides by the insane counsels of terror. He was urged to take the most savage methods of reprisal. The dethroned King of Oude was living near Calcutta. Of all Dalhousie's annexations perhaps that of Oude was the one which most afflicted sensitive consciences; and the people of Calcutta, convinced that the King of Oude was preparing schemes of vengeance, besought the Governor-General to seize his person. Canning responded by receiving the King and his Vizier to reside in his own house. The clamours against him rose to frenzy: people nicknamed him "Clemency Canning"; they shrieked for his recall; but through all the tumult this great man kept his head cool and his nerve steady.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by Bourne & Shepherd, Calcutta._

STATE ELEPHANTS OF THE VICEROY OF INDIA.

The elephant in the centre of the group was taken from the Nawab of Bengal at the Battle of Pla.s.sey in 1757, and was 140 years old when the photograph was taken.]

Happily there were other cool heads besides the Governor-General's. On May 11 information of the outbreak at Meerut was telegraphed from Calcutta to Lah.o.r.e, the capital of the Punjab. The Governor, Sir John (afterwards Lord) Lawrence was absent at Rawul Pindee, having left full power in the hands of the Judicial Commissioner, Mr. Robert Montgomery.

Four thousand Sepoy troops lay at Meean Meer, five or six miles from Lah.o.r.e, and Mr. Montgomery had to decide on the instant whether these should be a.s.sumed to be contemplating mutiny. He came to a speedy decision. They must not be allowed the chance. There was a great ball in Lah.o.r.e that night; among the guests were the civil and military chiefs of the district. Mr. Montgomery consulted with them and it was resolved to disarm the native troops. A parade was ordered for daybreak at Meean Meer: twelve guns loaded with grape were placed along one side of the parade ground. The troops were formed up in line of contiguous columns facing the guns and ordered to pile arms. They obeyed, for to hesitate was death. The rifles were carried off in carts, and the station was left in possession of 1,300 European troops. This was perhaps the most critical moment of the Mutiny. Nothing short of Mr. Montgomery's firmness, supported by the military commanders, could have ensured the safety of the Punjab.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph by F. Frith & Co._}

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CALCUTTA.

The official residence of the Viceroy of India. Built in 1799-1804 by Lord Wellesley at a cost of about 150,000. Calcutta is the seat of Government of the Empire of India; population (1891), 862,000. The total population of India in 1891 was 287,000,000, of whom only 238,500 habitually spoke English, and of these less than half were British born.]

[Sidenote: The Rising at Cawnpore.]

The darkest page of the book of Mutiny is that which contains the story of Cawnpore. In May 1857 there were 3,000 native troops at that place, and about 300 Europeans, under command of Sir Hugh Wheeler, an old man of seventy-five. Wheeler had reason to expect his force to mutiny, and appealed to Nana Sahib, a neighbouring prince representing the dethroned Mahratta Peishwah of Poonah, to help him. Nana had an undoubtedly genuine grievance against the Government. On the death of the last Peishwah, Lord Dalhousie had refused to continue the pension to his adopted son Nana, thereby violating the Hindoo principle that all the rights of sonship, material as well as spiritual, are conveyed by adoption. Nana, whose real name was Seereek Dhoondoo Punth, was rich and hospitable, and delighted in entertaining English officers and their ladies at his residence near Cawnpore. He responded cordially to Sir Hugh's invitation, and came at once to Cawnpore with 300 men and two guns, to help to keep order. His arrival coincided with the revolt of the garrison, and he placed himself at once at the head of the mutineers. Wheeler had taken refuge in an old hospital building with about 1,000 Europeans, of whom 280 were women and girls, with about the same number of children. A hasty entrenchment was thrown up, and Wheeler refused Nana's summons to surrender. For nineteen days, under the tropical sun of June, this handful of brave men maintained the defence of their crumbling mud wall against thousands of rebels. The a.s.sailants were reinforced by a contingent of Oude men, who made a fierce a.s.sault on the place; but the English were fighting for more than their mere lives; the presence of their women and children made each man bear himself like a Paladin. The attack was repulsed, and this prolonged resistance soon began to tell on the prestige of Nana, for Hindoos and Mahomedans alike appreciate prowess in the field. He offered terms to the besieged: "All those who are in no way connected with the acts of Lord Dalhousie, and who are willing to lay down their arms, shall receive a safe pa.s.sage to Allahabad."

[Ill.u.s.tration:

A. Post and Telegraph Offices. B. High Court. C. Clock Tower.

D. University. E. Secretariat.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS, BOMBAY.

Bombay is for Europeans the Gate of India, the port of arrival and departure for both pa.s.sengers and mails. It is in direct communication by railway with Calcutta and Madras. Population (1891), 822,000.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by F. Frith & Co._

NATIVE HOUSES IN THE FORT, BOMBAY.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by F. Frith & Co._

STATUE OF THE QUEEN AND TELEGRAPH OFFICE, BOMBAY.

The Statue, executed in white marble by n.o.ble, was unveiled by Lord Northbrook in 1872. A native superst.i.tion ascribes the origin of the recent plague to vengeance for an insult offered to this statue, which was one morning found bedaubed with tar.]

[Sidenote: The Ma.s.sacre.]

The terms were accepted. The little garrison had done all that flesh and blood and gallant souls could do. The survivors of the siege embarked in boats on the Ganges, prepared by Nana's orders. The women and children were all aboard, the men were following. At that moment a bugle sounded; instantly the straw awnings of the boats burst into flame, and the native rowers leaped out. A fire of grape and musketry poured down on the frail craft, and continued till Tantia Topee, Nana's lieutenant, sounded the "Cease fire!" Then the survivors, 125 Englishwomen and children, many of them sorely wounded, were collected and driven back to the town. One only of the boats escaped, drifting down the Ganges, a target for innumerable marksmen on both banks. A dozen men landed to drive off the a.s.sailants; in their absence the boat was captured, and those on board--sixty-five men, twenty-five women, and four children--were haled back to Cawnpore. The men were shot on the spot; the women and children were crammed into the prison-house with the others. Cholera and dysentery soon carried off eighteen women and seven children--more fortunate than their companions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by Bourne & Shepherd, Calcutta._

SUTTEE CHOWRA GHAT.

On the banks of the Ganges; the scene of the first ma.s.sacre of Cawnpore.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Baron Marochetti, Sc._} {_Photo by Bourne & Shepherd._

THE STATUE ERECTED OVER THE WELL AT CAWNPORE

Into which the bodies of the English women and children were thrown after the ma.s.sacre in the prison.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a Photograph_} {_by Bourne & Shepherd._

BENARES FROM THE GANGES.

Benares is the sacred city of the Hindoos. It contains innumerable temples and shrines, the most sacred being that of Bisheswar, dedicated to the worship of Shiva; its dome is overlaid with gold. To Buddhists the stupa now called Damek, three miles to the north of Benares, erected on the spot where Buddha first expounded his doctrine, is a place of pilgrimage. But the most prominent object from the river is the Mohammedan mosque built by Aurungzeb, son of Shah Jehan. Its slender minarets are 147 feet high.]

Nana's visions of rule were becoming overcast. The English had rallied from the first shock of the Mutiny; troops, before which he knew his men dared not stand, were drawing near; Havelock had already routed Tantia Topee, with 4,000 of Nana's best fighting men, and Neill was at Allahabad. The rebellion was mastered, but Nana's vengeance, if it was to be balked of its full scope, at least should be complete on those who were in his power. A company of Sepoys was ordered up to the house where the Englishwomen were imprisoned. Unhappy creatures, their approaching fate cannot have caused them much concern; they were in every circ.u.mstance of suffering and misery already. For nearly four weeks they had not been able to change their tattered clothing, nor had a drop of water to wash in. The Sepoys began firing through the windows, but there were traces of mercy in their hearts; they fired high and ineffectively, and were marched home again. In the evening five men were sent up and entered the house; awful sounds were heard within, and twice one of the butchers came out and exchanged his broken, b.l.o.o.d.y sword for a fresh weapon. At length all was still; the five men, weary with slaughter, came out and went off, locking the door behind them. Next morning they returned with a fatigue party, cleared out that fearful house of blood, and flung the bodies down a dry well.