head, crowned by masses of crisp grey hair, his keen, shrewd, but kindly honest eyes, his firm mouth with its short trim moustache, his expression denoting a temper so excitable yet so exact; so resolute to enforce obedience yet so genial; so irascible and so forgiving.'
It will be remembered from what has already been said, that between May and August, 1857, in which latter month Sir Colin Campbell arrived at Calcutta and assumed command of the army, almost the whole Bengal Regular Native troops were in open revolt against the Government. All the military contingents in the neighbouring Native States of Gwalior, Indore, and Bhopál, and many elsewhere, had moreover joined the mutineers, — the Gwalior Contingent alone amounting to five companies of artillery, with a magazine and siege train, two cavalry and seven infantry regiments. A large mass of police, badmashes, prisoners escaped from jails, and hereditary tribes of robbers and thieves had from time to time swelled the rebel band. Some idea of the enemy's strength may be gathered from the fact that the regular and irregular troops investing Lucknow were at one period estimated at no fewer than 200,000 men. Lower Bengal, Madras, and Bombay were, as already mentioned, comparatively quiet. The Punjab remained in our hands. But the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, comprising a territory of about 100,000 square miles, with a population of 38,000,000, were for the moment in possession of the rebels; while we had lost
