The Mutiny of 1857, and the Siege
with the intelligence that no British troops were pursuing, that the attack was ordered. When it came the defence could not last long; the attackers were often swept from the walls, but some of the defenders were wounded; no cloud of dust arose on the Meerut Road, all hope of succour was gone. So the signal was given, the trains were fired, and one of the magazines went up into the air, carrying with it a number of the attackers and shaking the whole city.
At the sound of the explosion the Sepoys of the main guard at the Cashmere Gate became restive, and mutiny developed quickly in canton-ments. The officers and ladies, who had taken refuge at the Cashmere Gate (most of these were residents in this quarter of the city) were now fired on, and would not have escaped with their lives, had it not been for the proximity of the Treasury and the desire of the Sepoys for loot. And now those had to turn and flee who had passed an anxious day, collected within the narrow limits of the Flagstaff Tower, hoping against hope for a sign of dust on the Meerut Road, and surrounded by Sepoys, whose tempers could not be judged with accuracy.
And so let us leave Delhi for a while, in the hands of mutineers and of the scum of the population, looting on all sides, murdering all who267
