STATE OF THE PUNJAB PRECARIOUS.

97

felt the shock, and for the moment trembled; but it passed off, and all again relapsed into that portentous lull. Not that the public generally were conscious of the danger; they could see only the flash and its effect; but they who in silent stern resolve swayed the Punjab knew too well that the whole political horizon was surcharged with the electric fluid, which might at any moment set the whole country in a blaze, and add to the horrors of a Poorbeah mutiny the crowning desolation of a Punjab rebellion.

First for Lahore. All the Hindostanee regiments there, as has been already described, had at the first outbreak been disarmed by that master-stroke of the (still unrewarded) Brigadier Stuart Corbett. The Sikhs had been soon after detached, and formed into a body, and had received back their arms; the Bhojporees* also, who were believed to be free from the seditious taint, were drafted out of these corps; and thus the Poorbeahs alone remained degraded and watched. This

looked only to their liege lord for the signal; that the hill stations were utterly denuded of English; that there remained only "wounded men, widows and children;" that the Goorkhas of the Nusseree battalion at Seharunpore were prepared to join; and the English could be annihilated without difficulty. This valuable missive was soon in the hands of Mr Barnes the Commissioner, its contents communicated to the Maharajah (who indignantly repudiated the imputation), and the Byrajee, as he sat in fancied security under the shadow of his own tree, was seized, brought down to Umballa, tried, convicted, and hanged. His fate was not without its warning for good. If there was truth (as perhaps there was) in the statement that the hill chiefs were ready to rise, its failure gave them little encouragement; still less so did the noble unswerving loyalty of the Maharajah offer any countenance to such treachery. Thus, with the old priest the intrigue began and ended.

* Men of Bhojpore, a district of Behar, which was still quiet.

VOL. II.

G

98

THE 26TH N. I. BREAK OUT,

state of surveillance was little suited to the taste of "Jack Sepoy," who had been hitherto so petted and pampered. He writhed under the sense of detected treachery, and was for ever plotting for revenge or escape. Hitherto no opportunity had offered; for two months and a half they had remained in sullen passiveness, nursing up their discontent, their imagined wrongs, and their spirit of rebellion.

Rumours had, indeed, been from time to time floating about that a rise was meditated; but the cry of 'wolf" so often heard, came to be little heeded. Nor even when, during the latter days of July, the rumour began to assume more shape-when even the very manner and time of the outbreak were mysteriously hinted at-was any notice taken of it, or any more than ordinary precaution adopted. However, as the mid-day gun fired on the 30th July, there came up ominous sounds of shouting and yelling from the lines of the 26th N. I.; Major Spencer, who commanded, at once hastened down to see the cause, and found the whole regiment in mutiny. Unarmed as he was, he went forward and endeavoured to reason with them : but in vain. The tide had set in too strong to be now stemmed. A sepoy, stealing up behind, felled him with a blow from a hatchet (for though deprived of their arms, they had no difficulty in subsequently supplying themselves with native weapons), others rushed on him, and he who had grown up among them from boyhood—who had lived among them, and, it might be said, for them-and there were few who would have

MURDER MAJOR SPENCER, AND ESCAPE.

*

99

been said to be more beloved by their men-he was hacked to pieces by his own BABAS. The sergeantmajor also, who attempted to rescue him, was knocked down and killed. The men then broke off into parties, and made for their officers' bungalows, bent on killing every one they found. Providentially the officers were at the mess-house, and so escaped. A large body of the sepoys then rushed to the house of the chaplain, the Rev. F. Farrer (who lived in the same lines), threatening to murder him; but he became aware of the danger in time to escape. Springing into his buggy, he drove out of one gate of his compound (estate) as the fiends were pouring in at the other. Baffled everywhere, they returned to their paradeground, and then beat a retreat. The artillery were above a mile off. It took time to give orders, and to bring the guns up in pursuit; and when they reached the lines, they found them empty, and the rebels clear away. A dust-storm, too, came on; so furious was the wind, and so dense the darkness, that pursuit was impossible. It was not even known what route they had taken. It was thought that Hurreekee Ghat, on the Sutlej, with the chance of pushing down to that focus of rebellion, Delhi, was the most probable point that they would make for; and Captain T. Blagrave started off with a small body of his new Sikh levies in that direction, while Lieut. Boswell was ordered up to the same point

Literally children, a term of endearment which was commonly used by officers of sepoy regiments when speaking of or to their men. It is sad to reflect how such misplaced confidence, ay, and affection, have been requited.

100

ARE CAPTURED AT UJNALA.

from Umritsur, with a few of his Punjabees and some Towana Horse, to be ready for them should they effect a crossing. However, with a view doubtless to hand on the torch of mutiny to the other disarmed Hindostanee regiments scattered over the Manjha country, they took the very opposite direction; bearing due north, they worked up the left bank of the Ravee. They had not gone above five-and-twenty miles, when, in their attempt to cross a ghat, they were confronted by a sturdy Punjabee Tehsildar with a handful of police, and were for a time kept at bay. News of their position soon came into Umritsur; Mr F. Cooper, the Deputy Commissioner, flew off with a small body of mounted police, and by a forced march came upon them on the afternoon of the 31st. He found them in a sorry plight; famished and footsore, on an island, with no means of defence or escape. It was a second Trimmoo Ghat, only without the old Sikh gun or the Enfields, for the best weapons they could muster were hatchets and knives. By an ingenious arrangement,* Mr Cooper succeeded in getting them all off the island, and landing them on the shore, in such small detachments that they were outnumbered, and bound with ropes, and thus secured were marched off, 500 rebel sepoys, under guard of scarcely a quarter that number of police, to Ujnala, the nearest police-station. Here, on the following morning, a general execution took place; and within forty-eight hours of the outbreak at

*This is described at some length in the Crisis in the Punjab, p. 94-99.

UNIV. OF CAL

MR COOPER'S COURSE DEFENDED.

101

Mean-Meer, the 26th N. I. had ceased to be; and the peace of the Punjab was still secured.*

From Lahore and Ujnala we pass to Ferozepore. The month was scarcely half over when the emeute of

* The circumstances of this execution have been most unsparingly, and perhaps not altogether unnaturally, censured in various quarters, either for party purposes, or in ignorance of the real state of the country, or both. Not only has Mr Cooper been condemned, but even Sir John Lawrence and Mr Montgomery have been included in the censure, for daring to approve of the tremendous retribution inflicted on the 26th N. I. Let the reader think only of the really critical position of the Punjab at that time, and he will at once see that that stern policy was the only safe one; and that the fate of the 26th mutineers, murderers and deserters as they were, was both just and necessary; nor would it have called forth a single word of condemnation, but for the glowing terms of exultation in which Mr Cooper so unfortunately described their annihilation. On this whole question, who so capable of judging as Mr Montgomery himself? and his statement must silence all further cavil.

"Under the facts above stated," says Mr Montgomery in his official review of the whole case, "there arise three questions:

"First.-Were the men legally and morally liable to the punishment of death?

"Second.-Was this punishment, under the circumstances, necessary as well as just?

"Third.-Was it possible, under the said circumstances, to select men for various degrees of punishment, or to wait for a formal trial? "On each of these questions a few words may be said.

"First, then, Were they legally and morally liable to the punishment of death? Now it will have been seen that they were murderers, mutineers, and rebels, in the broadest sense. As such they were taken in flagrante delicto. And for such an offence the punishment of death is adjudged both in law and morals. The whole body were directly or indirectly participating in the murders, the mutinous rising, the escape, the resistance. If this be so, then the whole body were justly executed. Where many blows were struck, it was impossible to say which hand was most guilty. Subsequent inquiries seemed to point to a particular man as having dealt a fatal blow to Major Spencer; but at the time the whole regiment were banded in one accord, and none would inculpate the other. They stood, acted, and fell together. Secondly, Was the punishment necessary as well as just? Now at that moment the Lahore Government was literally in extremity. Its last available European troops had been despatched to Delhi. There was but one weak European regiment to guard the whole Lahore