most noble sons, was literally crumbling into dust and ruins in less than a day.
Here a member of our picket interrupted Sunker Tewāre by asking the reason for the symptoms of the Mutiny appearing first in those cantonments nearest to Calcutta, and thus, as it were, in the face of a vast European population, a strong force of English soldiers, an overwhelming number of sailors belonging to the shipping; and also while no sign of disloyalty had appeared among the Sepoys in the military stations of the Upper Provinces. His answer to this question was to the effect that, although the initial step in the direction of a mutinous movement was taken by the Sepoys stationed adjacent to Calcutta, that initial step was accidental, insomuch that when the mutiny occurred there, every regiment in the Bengal Presidency was, more or less, already disloyal, and in consequence the initial outbreak might have happened at any cantonment. But, as already stated, there being no defined, or preconcerted organisation in the movement, all the regiments, fearing to initiate the “move,” waited for each other to rise, and immediately the first successfully rose in open rebellion, the rest, “in Indian file,” like imitative sheep followed as a matter of course.
Meanwhile, alarmed at the threatening attitude now assumed by the misguided and deluded Sepoys stationed at Barrackpur and Bahgulpur, near Calcutta, the Government strenuously endeavoured, with reassuring proclamations and conciliatory explanations, to
