Sir Hugh Rose now continued his march to Jhánsí, which lay 125 miles north of Ságar. Great importance was attached by the British authorities to the fall of this fortress and city. It was looked on as the stronghold of the mutineers in Central India. The rebel garrison included 10,000 Valaitis (Afghán mercenaries), and Bundelas (as the people of Bundelkhand are called); besides 1500 mutinous Sepoys, of whom 400 were cavalry. The number of guns in the city and fort was estimated at from thirty to forty pieces.
Nowhere in India had the people displayed a more intense hostility to the English. In June, 1857, after the overthrow of British authority at Delhi, 67 Englishmen and women were murdered at Jhánsí in the most deliberate way. The principal inhabitants and leading tradesmen, headed by ulemas and fanatics, marched with their victims in solemn procession to the place of execution, singing verses of the Kuran, and in particular the ruthless text, 'No mercy to Giaours.' The English prisoners, amongst them the Resident, Captain Skene, and other functionaries, with their wives and children, were marshalled in regular order; and on reaching the ruins of an old mosque were halted, carefully separated, the men from the women and children, and hacked to pieces by the butchers of the city.
But anxious as were Lord Canning and the Commander-in-Chief that Jhánsí should speedily fall, they were so impressed with its strength, and with the
