36

THE STATE OF THE REBELS IN THE CITY.

Neil's advance, of the recovery of Cawnpore-though all too late to save the poor women and children—and the condign retribution he inflicted on their murderers. This was like a little gleam of sunshine finding its way into camp; it helped to sustain and give vigour to the new life which had been infused there.

The reader must now pass from the ridge into the city. Here, too, the month of July had its lights and shades. The hereditary death-strife of the two races could with difficulty be restrained; daily it was in danger of breaking out one day there was a riot because some Mohammedans had killed a cow; another day the whole city was in commotion because the Hindoo Pundits declared a day to be unfortunate on which the Mohammedans had planned an attack upon our rear. In this disunion, this perpetual liability to a rupture, this conflict of interests, rivalry of claims, this mutual suspicion, the absence of any one leading mind, lay our chief safeguard. In vain did the old King and the princes resort to conciliation-concession-in order to preserve peace, or to restore confidence. In vain did they announce each outbreak in the Punjab as a gain to Delhi; in vain did they point to the death of two Commandersin-Chief, who, they said, had poisoned themselves in despair. The rumours of the advancing troops from below (which always got into the city before it reached camp) made their hearts quail, and strengthened the growing conviction that their mutiny was a failure, and that a day of retribution for them was at hand.

The news from Agra was proclaimed by a royal

THE STATE OF THE KING.

37

salute from Selimghur, and the walls of the city of Shah Jehan* resounded with the notes of "God save the Queen," in honour of the announced capture of the fort of Akhbar ! Yet in vain did the generals taunt their men that the Neemuch force had taken Agra, while they had not taken a single battery on the ridge.†

As for the old King, amid all this division and strife it fared but ill with him. Those few weeks of seeming success had sufficed to show the "Emperor of Hindostan" how perilous a course he had chosen; better to have remained in pensioned pomp a king only in name, and have ended his days in peace, than in evil hour have listened to the voice of ambition, and have made a struggle for independence, to become the mere puppet of a horde of soldiery, among whom he had aroused a spirit he could not control. Milo had rent the oak, and already felt the rebound.

"The sepoys, and not the King, rule in Delhi; all is confusion and riot," was the terse report of Rujjub Ali.

The old man himself, indulging in an imagined gift of poesy, describes his forlorn condition about this time. in the following pathetic strain, roughly translated from the Persian

"The army surrounds me; I have no peace nor quiet.

My life alone remains, and that they will soon destroy."+

* Shajehanabad is the Mohammedan name of the present city of Delhi, so called from its founder.

GREATHED'S Letters, p. 118.

One other from the piles of poetic fragments with which the royal

338

STRIFE AMONG THE REBEL LEADERS.

His difficulties seemed daily to increase; the very accession of strength in the Bareilly brigade brought with it a fresh trouble. The clever and ambitious Mohamed Bukht Khan, as the head of such a "following," claimed to thrust his obese form even into high places: backed by his brigade, he dared to beard the old King in his own palace, and to dictate terms for himself in the council chamber, as an equal in power with the royal princes, who now commanded the army. This claim was first of all met by a compromise, and General Mohamed Bukht Khan was appointed Commandant of the Magazine, and Commissary-General of Ordnance, and Commander-in-Chief; and for a time peace was restored in the council. Still the King's position was far from comfortable-feuds and jealousies of his own sons, insolence of the upstart generals, clamours of a hungry army, loud remonstrances of the merchants and bankers of the city at the insatiable demands on their wealth, were incessantly dinning in his ears. Even in the female apartments, to which he fled for shelter from the turbulent scenes which were being daily enacted in the Hall of Audience, he looked in vain for peace-they had become a perfect hotbed of intrigue.

At length his life was rendered so miserable, that, to the amazement of the few admitted into the secret,

bard used to solace his weary hours, deserves to be rescued from oblivion: it runs as follows:

"The Persian hosts and Russian armies could not prevail against the British;

But an impure cartridge has sapped the foundations of their power."

THE KING OFFERS TO SURRENDER.

39

39

at the very time when the rebel force seemed the strongest, and our position the most perilous, Shah Bahadoor Shah, Emperor of Hindostan, sent in to camp to treat for terms! His proposal was to open the gate of Selimghur at the bridge, let in our troops into the palace, and place all in our hands, on condition that he was restored to his former condition of titular king, and his former pension of twelve lakhs a-year. Was it a ruse to gain time by negotiation, and to ward off the threatened assault, or to test our own position by the mode in which we should receive the proposal? This was the first question. Then, could he fulfil his part of the agreement? Was he in a position to open the Selimghur Gate to us? Or, after all, was it not a mere piece of Asiatic treachery-a trap to catch us in?

The proposition was immediately telegraphed to the Chief Commissioner, whose reply was, that the King should first prove that he was guiltless of the blood of any Christian, and then satisfy the authorities that he has the power of placing the palace in their hands. "Treat, but beware of treachery;" and he stipulated peremptorily, that at all events the King should quit the city. Mr Montgomery was less disposed than Sir John Lawrence to treat at all with the King, and strongly urged that it became us to take the highest ground with such a traitor. However, whether there was treachery or not would never be told. It soon appeared the King had not the power of making good his promise —he was not master even of his own palace; and so

40

TREAT, BUT BEWARE OF TREACHERY."

the negotiation came to nothing. Yet this transaction has been so grievously misrepresented, that a few words of comment are necessary, if only to vindicate the character of those concerned.

This is one of the acts of Sir John Lawrence which have been, in high places, dwelt on in depreciation of the policy of his administration. "Even Sir John Lawrence," said Lord Granville in the House of Peers, "was willing to make terms with the King; but Lord Canning, a civilian, had the courage to take upon himself the responsibility of absolutely refusing these propositions." Now let us mark the facts of the case. It was on the 5th of July Sir John Lawrence received first intimation of the King's proposal. The same day took back to camp his brief telegraphic reply, and a letter stating at length his opinions, and the reasons on which he based them; and on the following day he communicated to Calcutta a full account of the whole transaction. When, if ever, this communication reached the Council does not appear, for it was never answered. But two months after, on the 4th September, an official letter was received by Mr Greathed,* the Commissioner with the force, of which the following is an extract: "Rumours have more than once reached this Government, that overtures have been made by the King of Delhi to the officer commanding the troops there, and that these overtures may be possibly renewed upon the basis of the restoration of the King to the position which he held before the mutiny of Meerut and Delhi. * GREATHED'S Letters, p. 252.