BOOK VIII. Chapter IV. 1857. May 23-28. The disposi tion of the Nasírábád garrison. Precautions there taken. not march so quickly as the rumour which heralded their approach. Before they could arrive the mischief had been accomplished. They were able, however, to a great extent to repair it. The garrison of Nasírábád consisted of the 15th and 30th Regiments of Native Infantry, a battery of native Artillery, and the 1st Bombay Lancers. Reports regarding the bad disposition of the men of the 15th had been circulated in the station very soon after the arrival of the news of the Mírath outbreak. But their officers considered these reports greatly exaggerated, believing that although their men might follow the lead of others, they would not show the way. The result showed that they were mistaken. In consequence of the prevalent rumours every possible precaution for the safety of the station had been taken. The cantonment was patrolled every night by parties of the 1st Lancersbelieved to be faithful-the guns were kept limbered up and loaded with grape. But about afternoon of the 28th of May some men of the 15th suddenly rushed to the guns, with loaded muskets, and declared themthere mutiny. selves in revolt. The guns almost simultaneously The sepoys 3 o'clock on the opened fire. The officers galloped down to the lines and attempted to bring their men to reason, but in vain. Muskets were pointed, in some cases fired, at them, and they were warned to be off. The 30th Regiment, which till then had remained quiescent, apparently in a state of hesitation, joined the revolters about 4 o'clock. There still remained the Lancers. These at least would remain true. BOOK VIII. Chapter IV. 1857. May 28. Disaffection of the ca valry. In this belief the infantry and artillery officers joined them, hoping with them to charge the rebels. They did charge. But the guns loaded with grape opened upon them. The men had no heart in the business. I have said that they charged. But it would have been more correct to state that they made several feints to charge. They never rode home. One of the officers, Newbery, who did charge home, was cut down and hacked to pieces, Captain Spottiswoode also was killed, and two officers, Captain Hardy and Lieutenant Lock, were badly wounded. Then it was that, feeling all their efforts useless, the officers resolved to retreat and accompany the ladies to Bíáor. These had been sent outside the cantonments when the first shot was fired. There the station. the officers found them, and escorted them all that night and till 11 o'clock the next morning to their destination. There was but one casualty ---Colonel Penny of the Lancers dying of heat apoplexy on the road. The officers, children are ladies, and forced to evacuate Nímach lies about a hundred and fifty miles Núnach. south of Nasírábád. The troops at this station consisted of the 72nd Regiment of Native Infantry, the 7th Regiment of the Gwáliár contingent, and a wing of the 1st Bengal Cavalry. Sudden firing of houses, reports from the lines, and the unwonted presence of strangers, had foreshadowed for some time past a rising at this station. Yet the men loudly protested their fidelity and their indignation at the conduct of their brethren. All remained quiet till the 3rd of June. That day full information was received of BOOK VIII. Chapter IV. 1857. June 3. The rising there. The officers escape to Udaipur. Colonel Law. rence starts for Bíáor. He is nomi nated Brigadier-General. the events at Nasírábád on the 28th. That night about 10 o'clock the firing of two guns announced to the officers that the men had risen. Fortunately at Nímach there was a fortified square which had been prepared as a place of refuge in case of an emergency. Its defence, however, had been entrusted to the men of the 7th Regiment of the Gwáliár contingent. The officers on the first sound of the mutiny rushed to this square, and found the left wing of that regiment entering it, whilst the men of the right wing were lining the ramparts. The officers spoke cheerfully and encouragingly to the men. These promised fidelity, many declaring that they would rather die than surrender. Delusive were their promises. At 4 o'clock in the morning the sepoys guarding the fort mutinied, despite the protestations of their officers, and filed out to join their comrades in the plunder of the station. No officers lost their lives, but there were some hair-breadth escapes. The wife of a serjeant and her three children were murdered before they could reach the fort. Ultimately the Europeans succeeded in making their way to Udaipur. The rebels burned all the houses in the station but one, plundered the treasury, and made, by way of A'gra, for Dehlí. Their operations on the rear of our force there, and their sudden assault on A'gra, will be related presently. Intelligence of the mutiny at Nasírábád reached Colonel Lawrence at Abú on the 1st of June. He started at once for Bíáor so as to be close to the scene of action. On his arrival at Bíáor he found himself nominated Brigadier-General in command BOOK VIII. of all the troops in Rájpútáná. Almost his first But very soon the results of the earlier inspirations of General Lawrence began to manifest themselves. 1857. June 1-12. His scanty resources. On the 12th of June there arrived Troops from Dísú arrive. at Nasírábád the force for which he had made a requisition on Dísá. This force consisted of four hundred men of Her Majesty's 83rd; the 12th Bombay Native Infantry; and a troop of European Horse Artillery. He at once ordered a Re-occupahundred men to Ajmír to reinforce the Mairs ábád, stationed there. General Lawrence then made that It should be stated that of this post to the Mahomeon the summit of the hill com- dans of the shrine, the chief manding Ajmír, and command- priests of which had satising the magazine and the city factorily proved that it was was another and a smaller fort, their interest as its guarclose to a shrine held in vene- dians to remain faithful to ration by the Mahomedans. the British. They were true Not having at his disposal a to the end, performing the sufficient number of men to garrison duties with zeal and guard the fort, General Law- fidelity till the danger had rence entrusted the defence passed away. tion of Nasír BOOK VIII. Chapter IV. 1857. June 12. and of Nímach, by Euro. pean troops. The lieu- 256 THE LIEUTENANTS OF GENERAL LAWRENCE. place his head-quarters, making constant visits, however, to Bíáor and Nasírábád.* After the revolt of the native troops at Nímach, General Lawrence had caused that place to be occupied by detachments from the contingents of Méwa, Kotá, and Búndí. He had no choice, for at the moment no other troops were available. A few indications, however, soon showed him that these men were as little to be trusted as were their brethren in the line. He took, then, an early opportunity of replacing them by a detachment from the troops but just arrived from Dísá. But it was impossible for General Lawrence to be everywhere; it was impossible that he should be able to demonstrate personally to all the native sovereigns and chieftains with whom he was officially connected that the knell of British rule had not sounded; it was impossible for him to enact at each native capital the policy which had been so successful at Ajmír. And the effect of all these impossibilities ultimately made itself felt. A narration of these events belongs to a subsequent period of this history. It will be suffi * "During June and July only guard. When at Ajmír I resided alternately between I never once allowed the Ajmír, Bíáor, and Nasírá- routine of civil duties to be bád as I deemed my pre- interrupted, but held open sence necessary at each place court, almost daily visiting with reference to my military the city, where, although fierce as well as civil and political and sullen faces were always duties. My head-quarters to be seen, I was always treatwere, however, at Ajmír, ed with the greatest respect." where I resided in the Daolat -Forty Years Service in India, Bágh, close to the city, with a by Lieutenant-General Sir native officer's party of the George Lawrence. Mairwárá battalion as my |