incompetency of the general, an old man who had lost all energy, and who
remained in a state of indecision while the men of the native regiments
shot their officers, murdered all the women and children, and the white
inhabitants whose bungalows were situated at their end of their
cantonment, opened the jail doors, and after setting fire to the whole of
this quarter of Meerut, marched off toward Delhi, unmolested by the
British troops. Even then an orderly sent off with dispatches to the
officer commanding at Delhi, informing him of what had happened, and
bidding him beware, might have saved the lives of hundreds of Englishmen
and women, even if it were too late to save Delhi; but nothing whatever
was done; the English troops made a few meaningless and uncertain
movements, and marched back to their barracks. No one came forward to take
the lead. So the white troops of Meerut remained stationary under arms all
night, and the English population of Delhi were left to their fate.

From Meerut to Delhi is thirty-two miles, and the mutineers of Meerut,
marching all night, arrived near the town at eight in the morning.
Singularly enough, the ancient capital of India, the place around which
the aspiration of Hindoos and Mohammedans alike centered, and where the
ex-emperor and his family still resided, was left entirely to the guard of
native troops; not a single British regiment was there, not a battery of
white troops. As the center of the province, a large white population were
gathered there-the families of the officers of the native infantry and
artillery, of the civil officers of the province, merchants, bankers,
missionaries, and others. As at all other Indian towns, the great bulk of
the white inhabitants lived in the cantonments outside the town; had it
not been for this, not one would have escaped the slaughter that commenced
as soon as the Third Cavalry from Meerut rode into the town. The Fifty-
fourth Native Infantry, who had hastily been marched out to meet them,
fraternized with them at once, and, standing quietly by, looked on while