BOOK VIII.
Chapter VI.

1857.

May 31.

Viceroy of Rohilkhand. His vice-royalty was bap-
tised with blood. The two judges, Messrs.
Robertson and Raikes; the deputy-collector, Mr.
Wyatt; Dr. Hay, Mr. Orr, Dr. Buck, and three
other civilians; all the merchants, traders, and
clerks, and all the women and children who had
not quitted the station, were murdered. Most
of these were judicially slaughtered-slaughtered,
that is to say, by the express order of the new
viceroy, and many of them after having been
brought into his presence. Exposed to this by the
terrible ordeal, cast by ruffians at the feet of this
greater ruffian, the English race still asserted itself.
The new viceroy was told to his face that though
he might water his new throne with their blood,
it would yet take no root in the ground; that
though he might find it easy to slaughter
unarmed men, women, and children, British
power would yet assert itself to crush him.

slaughter of

the English.

dur Khán.

The better to assure the mastery and to rid Khán Bahá. himself of all rival claimants Khán Bahádur Khán took the earliest opportunity to persuade Bakht Khán, the súbadár of artillery before alluded to, and who had assumed the title of Brigadier, to lead the sepoys to Dehlí, furnishing him with a letter to the king. He even made a show of accompanying him. But it was only a show. He returned from the first stage to Barélí, fortified his house, and, adding sacrilege to murder, destroyed the tomb of Mr. Thomason, whilom Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces, to build with the materials, after the manner of the princes of the House of Taimúr, a

318

BOOK VIII. Chapter VI.

1857. June.

Causes the British rule to be regretted.

Shahjahan.

púr.

The sepoys there are not distrusted.

But they mutiny,

and attack

the English when at church.

SHAHJAHANPU'R.

mausoleum for himself. He at the same time enlisted all the Mahomedans who would carry arms, and with their aid, began to oppress and plunder the rich Hindús. The latter began very soon to regret the overthrow of the British rule. On the very same day on which the tragedy I have recorded was being enacted at Barélí, events not less startling were taking place at Sháhjahánpúr, but forty-seven miles distant. There was but one native regiment at Shahjahanpúr, the 28th Regiment of Native Infantry. The news of the Mírath outbreak, arriving about the 15th of May, had not caused less excitement at this station than elsewhere. But whilst the residents, and especially the officers, continued to trust the sepoys, they looked for an outbreak on the part of the notoriously turbulent population. Little, however, occurred at the time to cause apprehension. But as day after day passed and rebellion seemed to be gathering head unchecked all about them, the sepoys began to display a behaviour not entirely consistent with duty. Still, however, their officers believed that the bulk of them were loyal.

This belief was roughly and suddenly dispelled. The 31st of May was a Sunday. Many of the residents and officers had gone to church. They were still at their prayers when the sepoys of the 28th rushed upon them.

On hearing the tumult the chaplain went to the door of the church to meet the mutineers. He was at once attacked, but escaped for the moment with the loss of his hand severed by a

THE ENGLISH ATTACKED IN A CHURCH. 319

Chapter VI.

1857.

May 31.

sword stroke. He was subsequently killed by BOOK VIII. some villagers. Mr. Ricketts, the magistrate, whose vigilance had attracted towards him the peculiar hatred of the mutineers, received a sword cut. He then attempted to escape to his house but was cut down about thirty-five yards from the vestry door. Mr. Labadoor, a clerk, was killed in the church. His wife, his sister-inlaw, and the bandmaster of the regiment, escaped for the moment, but eventually met a worse fate. Another clerk, a Mr. Smith, stole away, but was tracked out and killed.

barricade

The scuffle at the door of the church and the The English attack upon those who first presented themselves themselves. to the mutineers had given time meanwhile to the other officers and ladies present there to improvise a defence. Captain Lysaght, Mr. Jenkins, and others, succeeded in barring the chancel doors against their assailants. These, happily, had brought with them no muskets, only swords and clubs, and so mistrustful were they, that on observing the approach of one solitary officer, Captain Sneyd, armed with a gun, they made at once for their lines to get their muskets.

The gentlemen had, before this, placed the ladies in security in the church turret. Hardly had they done this when the sepoys went off in the manner described, and almost immediately afterwards their domestic servants, faithful in this extremity, arrived at the church, bringing with them their masters' guns and rifles. The English then ventured to open the doors. They found not only the horses and carriages, which

320

THE SURVIVORS RETIRE TOWARDS OUDH.

1857.

BOOK VIII. had brought them to church, still at the door, Chapter VI. but clustering round about a hundred sepoys, principally Sikhs, who had hastened up to rally round and to defend their officers. For the moment they were safe.

May 31.

Slaughter in the canton

ment.

Meanwhile the cantonments had been a scene of tumult and bloodshed. When one party of the mutineers had rushed to the church another had fired the bungalows and sought out the Europeans. The assistant magistrate was killed in the verandah of his court whither he had fled for refuge. Captain James, in temporary command of the 28th, was shot on the paradeground whilst trying to reason with his men. In reply to his arguments they asserted that they were not after all such great traitors, inasmuch as they had served the Government faithfully for twenty years. As he turned away in disgust they shot him. The mutineers allowed Dr. Bowling, the surgeon of the regiment, to visit the hospital unmolested, but, on his return, after he had taken up and placed inside his carriage his wife, his child, and his English maid, they shot him dead and wounded his wife. She managed, however, to reach the other fugitives at the church.

There, now, were assembled all the Europeans remaining alive. What were they to do? It was a terrible extremity. But desperate situations require desperate remedies, and the only sensible course seemed to be to make for the residence of The fugitives the Rájá of Powáin-across the Oudh frontier, with the Rájú though but a few miles distant. Thither accord

tako refuge

of Powáin.

ingly they proceeded, and there they arrived the same day. But their reception was unfavourable. The Rájá declared his inability to protect them and refused them shelter. Mr. Jenkins, the assistant magistrate, who was one of the party, wrote at once to Mr. Thomason, the Deputy Commissioner of Mohamdí, in Oudh, to inform him of the events at Sháhjahánpúr, and to beg him to send all the available carriage to enable the fugitives to reach Móhamdí. Mr. Thomason received the letter that night and complied, as far as he could, with the request. At Móhamdí the fugitives arrived, in a terrible plight, two days later. But they were not saved. Their subsequent adventures form one of the saddest episodes in the Indian mutiny.

BOOK VIII.

Chapter VI.

1857.

May.

Midway between Barélí and Shahjahanpúr, though not in a direct line, and some thirty miles from the former, lies the civil station of Badáon. Badáon. The magistrate and collector of this district, which took its name from the station, was Mr. William Edwards. Mr. Edwards had served as Mr. William Edwards. Under Secretary in the Foreign Department during the rule of Lord Ellenborough. A man of observation and ability he had marked how, during the fifteen years preceding the mutiny, the action of our revenue system had gradually ruined the landowners of the country and broken up the village communities. Under the action of that revenue system landed rights and interests, sold

"Sad was the appearance much difficulty and toil reach of the poor Shajahanpore thus far."-Narrative of the fugitives on their arrival at Shajahanpur Mutiny and MasMohundi; weary and with sacre.

naked feet did they with