recruited chiefly from the Brahmin class, had, amid all their ignorance and unreasoning bigotry, grown into a full knowledge of its own power. They well knew that they were united in a common class interest, could dictate their own terms, and had the Government at their mercy. They were pampered to the last degree by their timid and politic rulers. The stronger they grew, the more dangerous they became, and sooner or later a fearful conflict with them was inevitable; and the longer it was deferred, the more destructive it must be to the weaker party. Even now it makes one shudder to remember how completely we were in the power of these cruel and wicked men. All this is now changed. That vast combination of brute force, with its ignorance and fanaticism, has melted away. Only two regiments remain, who, I fear, more from peculiar combinations of circumstances than from any special virtue of their own, remained loyal, and wear to-day the title of “Wufadars,” (faithful;) all the rest of the mighty host has vanished away.
Nor did they fall alone—they dragged down into their hideous ruin the whole class from which they were recruited. A large portion of the towns and villages of Oude was a mere Sepoy training ground for the East India Company. Here, for generations, the inhabitants contemplated no other employment save service in the Company's army. At twice the compensation of artisans, with easy times, and decked out in the pomp of military array, these men lived in comparative affluence, and on the expiration of their term of service, they were retired on pensions for life equal to about half their pay. So that there were three generations of Sepoys in these villages in 1857, namely, the serving Sepoys, and as pensioners, their fathers and their grandfathers; and when the active force threw off their allegiance to the Government of Great Britain, and lost their cause, the reaction against them was so great, that, at one swoop, the Government which they had outraged cut off them and theirs from the rolls forever. Pay and pensions ceased, and two hundred thousand Sepoys, invalided and active, were thrown upon their own resources, and reduced to
