ment, which actually occurred? Besides, had the revolt been premeditated, or in a state of incubation, so to speak, would it not have been hatched a year or so earlier, when England was engaged in a stupendous struggle with Russia, and when in consequence India itself had been denuded of European troops for service in the Crimea — to say nothing of the war with Persia, which had just been brought to a successful conclusion, and English regiments were returning thence to India? Then, again, where were the good and faithful domestic servants, of whom hundreds were related by kindred ties to the Sepoys themselves? Would not they have heard some allusions to, or whispers of, the approaching evil days, and sounded warnings of the coming disasters? — disasters under which they themselves reeled, and were struck dumb, while at the risk of their own lives saving those of many Europeans.
It must be borne in mind that I am recording Sunker Tewāre's sentiments in saying, that if ever an army mutinied without premeditation, that army belonged to Bengal; and how far the Mutiny was unpremeditated, I will endeavour to substantiate in another page further on.
Moreover, it must ever be remembered to the credit of these very same Sepoys that, only a few months before they rose in mutiny, they were actually hunting down to the death, or bringing to the scaffold so-called “rebels,” or by whatever name one may designate men whose patriotism forced them to resist an unwarrantable confiscation of their homes in Oudh.
