"Had we better tell them inside?" the major asked.

"No," answered the colonel; "let them be happy for to-night; they will
know the news to-morrow. As they are breaking up, ask all the officers to
come round to the messroom; I will meet them there, and we can talk the
matter over; but let the ladies have one more quiet night; they will want
all their strength and fortitude for what is to come."

And so, clearing their brows, they went into the house and listened to the
music, and joined in the talk until ten o'clock struck and every one got
up to go, and so ended the last happy evening at Sandynugghur.

The next morning brought the news of the rising at Delhi, but it was not
till two days later that letters giving any details of these terrible
events arrived, and the full extent of the awful calamity was known.

The flame broke out at Meerut at seven o'clock in the evening of Sunday,
the 10th of May. On the previous day a punishment parade had been held to
witness the military degradation of a number of men of the Third Native
Cavalry, who had been guilty of mutinous conduct in respect to the
cartridges. The native regiments at the station consisted of the Third
Cavalry, the Eleventh and Twentieth Infantry; there were also in garrison
the Sixtieth Rifles, the Sixth Dragoon Guards, and two batteries of
artillery; a force amply sufficient, if properly handled, to have crushed
the native troops, and to have nipped the mutiny in the bud. Unhappily,
they were not well handled. The cantonments of Meerut were of great
extent, being nearly five miles in length by two in breadth, the barracks
of the British troops were situated at some distance from those of the
native regiments, and the action of the troops was paralyzed by the