Now, as we carried “the law” in our own free hands, and had almost entirely thrown off the restraints of civilisation, they were without ceremony lashed to trees, and thrashed with a severity that in other times would have been far from gratifying to witness. Still, it must be confessed that, for correcting native vagabonds in the most effectual way during those days, there was nothing like the application of unrelenting rods of iron.
While passing rapidly through the Gorukpūr station, we were unable to notice the full extent of the dismal wreck the rebels had left behind them. But, as we rode along, the loyal inhabitants of the town informed us that, immediately the Europeans abandoned the station, their houses were occupied by the rebel usurper — Mahomed Husain — and his followers; that the Christian church and cemetery had been desecrated, and that the whole neighbourhood at once became a huge den of iniquity and vice.
As we advanced, the signs of anarchy became more prominently defined. Fortifications, or rather loop-holed earthworks, erected here and there, forcibly illustrated systematised rebellion; while the people began to put on a more insolent air.
Wild rumours, too, were busy concerning the usurper of the Gorukpūr district, who, it was stated, had proclaimed a jehād (Crusade, or Holy War) against all Europeans invading his district! Neither was the intelligence received from the Oudh frontier cheering; and among other evil tidings that got spread abroad
