“I dare say my horse will carry double,”
Captain Manners said, laughing.
“Have the women here been kind?” Major
Warrener asked.
The girls shook their heads:
“Not very, papa; they have been talking of Delhi;”
and Kate shuddered.
The major frowned; he could guess what they must have
suffered. He went to the door.
“Kent, order the women out of the zenana
into one of the other rooms. Tell them that they
will all be searched as they come out, and that if
one brings out an ornament or a jewel with her she
will be put to death. Of course you will not
search them; but the threat will do. Let no insult
be offered them. Then let Rivers take four men,
and go in, and take all the loot you can find.
The jewels we will divide among the men when at Meerut.
Tell off another party to loot the rest of the rooms,
but only take what is really valuable and portable.
We cannot cumber ourselves with baggage. It would
serve the rajah right if I were to burn his castle
down; he may think himself lucky to get off with his
life.”
The girls pleaded for the women. “We bear
them no ill-feeling,” they said. “They
are very ignorant; they only acted as they were taught.”
“Well, well,” said the major, “we
will take the jewels alone; they are a fair loot.”
Another hour and the troops were already well on their
way on the Delhi road. The good luck which had
attended them so far followed them to the end.
Anxious to avoid an encounter with the enemy, they
took an even more circuitous route than that by which
they had come, and on the fourth afternoon after leaving
rode into Meerut, where their arrival after the long
and successful expedition created quite an excitement.
A comfortable house was found for the girls, with
some old friends of the major, who resided permanently
at Meerut; as for the major and his troops, they prepared
to accompany the column which was on the point of marching
against Delhi.
DELHI.
Never did a government or a people meet a terrible
disaster with a more undaunted front than that displayed
by the government and British population of India
when the full extent of the peril caused by the rising
of the Sepoys was first clearly understood. By
the rising of Delhi, and of the whole country down
to Allahabad, the northern part of India was entirely
cut off from Calcutta, and was left wholly to its own
resources. Any help that could be spared from
the capital was needed for the menaced garrisons of
Allahabad, Benares, and Agra, while it was certain
that the important stations of Cawnpore and Lucknow,
in the newly-annexed province of Oude, would at best
be scarcely able to defend themselves, and would in
all probability urgently require assistance. Thus
the rebel city of Delhi, the center and focus of the
insurrection, was safe from any possibility of a British
