This page needs to be proofread.

Delhi since 1857


in the Chandni Chouk about the end of the year.

On January 27, 1858, the old king himself was brought to trial before a military commission, composed of three "Queen's" and two "Company's" officers, on four charges, including the murder of forty-nine persons within the palace on the 16th of May. The trial lasted twenty-one days; a great many witnesses were called, including his own physician, AhsanuUa Khan; a quantity of documentary evidence was read, and all proved that he had given in his lot with the mutineers, and had assumed (as well as he could) the functions of royalty. That other and more astute minds had stirred up the Sepoys to mutiny seems almost certain; but he and his sons had definitely cast in their lot with them. The king had actually been one of the first to inform the Lieut. -Governor at Agra of the outbreak, but had afterwards gone with the tide which indeed he could never have stemmed. He was found guilty of every one of the charges; but there was no desire to visit on him the extreme penalty, even had not promise of his life been extended to him. He was deported to Rangoon with his favourite queen, Zinat Mahal, and their son, Jiwan Bakht, and there he died in 1862.

On January 11, 1858, Delhi was made over299