Guns to the Far East Read Online Free Page A

consideration.
    The news that Delhi had been seized by mutinous sepoy regiments from Meerut, early in May, had only recently been received in detail and reported in the London newspapers. All England had been stunned and shocked when it was revealed that British civil and military officers of the East India Company—in many cases with their wives and children—had been savagely murdered in both cities and that, in Delhi, a wholesale massacre of native Christians had taken place as a ghastly prelude to the restoration of the King of Delhi to the throne of his Mogul ancestors.
    Public opinion had been outraged as never before, even dignitaries of the Church joining in the demands for retribution and the severe punishment of the miscreants when letters, sent by overland mail, told of Christian places of worship desecrated and put to the torch in what, it seemed, the mutineers claimed was a holy war in defence of their own heathen beliefs. Moslem and Hindu, the enemies of centuries, had united together in the Bengal Presidency’s Army with the avowed intent of ridding all India of her Christian rulers, and their initial success in taking Delhi—achieved by treachery— had dealt a very serious blow to British authority and prestige.
    But that, the leader-writers insisted, was all the outbreak had done. Whilst not attempting to minimise the crime of mutiny, few of the influential journals had suggested that India was in serious danger of anarchy—many indeed, had criticised Disraeli for taking such a view, stating that he had no shadow of justification for so doing and even hinting that his motives were political. Delhi, the newspapers asserted, must at all costs be retaken and the self-styled Emperor deposed without delay. He was in his eighties, senile and almost certainly a puppet, who posed no real threat to the Company’s rule. The Commander-in-Chief, General Anson, was reported by telegraph to be marching at the head of a European force for the purpose of driving the mutineers from Delhi. News of his death from cholera on 27th May had been followed by that of the appointment of General Barnard in his place and there was jubilation when it was learned that the new Commander-in-Chief had continued to march and, after defeating the rebels at the Hindan River, was now preparing to lay siege to Delhi.
    Barnard was an experienced Crimean General; he would make short work of the siege, most of the newspapers agreed and, when Delhi was once again in British hands, the attempted mutiny would come to a swift and final end. It was the rebellion of a few disgruntled regiments, whose soldiers— drawn mainly from Oudh and resentful of the recent annexation of their corrupt and ill-governed kingdom—had stirred up trouble. An example would have to be made of them; innocent blood had been shed and mutiny was a crime punishable by death. It was even possible, one Whig newspaper declared, that the whole of the Bengal native army might have to be disbanded and … Augusta Hazard stifled a sigh. Until now she had believed all she had read on the leader-pages and in the news reports but now her faith was shaken, although … She glanced uneasily at Lord George Melgund and this time made no attempt to stifle her sigh. The most recent letters from her daughters had been calm and reassuring but they had been written almost six weeks ago and much could have happened in the interim.
    The elder, Harriet, was in Sitapur—one of the Oudh out-stations some sixty miles north of Lucknow—where her husband was a regimental Commander and which, Lady Hazard knew, had an entirely native garrison. According to Harriet, all the native regiments were behaving perfectly and, although news of the Meerut outbreak and the loss of Delhi had reached the station, all the officers continued to repose complete confidence in the loyalty of their men. “ If the worst should happen, Sir Henry Lawrence has given instructions