CHAPTER X.
LUCKNOW AND CAWNPORE—1857-8.
On the 23d of June, 1757, Lord Clive defeated the army of Surajah Dowlah, Nabob of Bengal, on the field of Plassey, in a battle which ranks as one of the decisive battles of India. Fifty years thereafter the Hindoo astrologers predicted that the year 1857, the centenary of Plassey, would witness the termination forever of the British power in India. Down to 1857 they continued to make this prediction, and early in that year it was evident that a mutinous spirit prevailed in the army of Bengal. The Bengal army at that time comprised 22,698 Europeans, including the officers of native regiments, and 118,663 sepoys, or native soldiers. The military authorities had decided to arm the sepoys with Enfield rifles, and a new kind of cartridge, which was greased in order to adapt it to the improved weapon. These cartridges had to be torn with the teeth, in accordance with the manual of arms, and the report was spread among the natives that the grease was a mixture of lard and cows' tallow. The pig is an unclean beast in the eyes of the Hindoo, and also the Moslem, while the cow is sacred; consequently, both Hindoo and Moslem would be defiled by biting the fat of the pig, and the Hindoo would commit sacrilege in biting cows' fat.
There was great excitement in all the barracks, which was temporarily allayed by the substitution of the old or ungreased cartridge for the new one. The native soldiers had a general impression that they were about to be de-
154
