shown, was in the Meerut division. At Meerut there was a regiment of Queen's dragoons, and of British infantry, with one troop and one company of artillery. These were sent at once to Delhi, to take part in the siege. The detachment at Cawnpur was locked up in its own defence. The Dinápur and Saugor detachments, insignificant in number, were distant and inaccessible. All that remained to Mr. Colvin wherewith to make head at Agra against 42,000 rebel soldiers, were a battery of six guns, the drivers being natives, and a new and raw English regiment on the Company's establishment, of 655 effective rank and file. Jekyll, in his letters, relates that the Mayor of Oxford apologized to Charles II for omitting a royal salute when the king entered that city. He had, he said, three excuses; the first, that he had no cannon. The king graciously dispensed with the other two. It is unnecessary to dwell on reasons which prevented Mr. Colvin from making head against the Mutiny. His first reason, like that of the Mayor of Oxford, was sufficient.
He was at once cut off from all communication with the Commander-in-Chief and with the Punjab. He endeavoured to utilise the Native Hindu States around him, and to enlist their sympathies against the Delhi Emperor. He made a bold use of their troops and contingents. On May 16 Lord Canning, struck by the tone and substance of his telegrams, 'thanked him sincerely for all that he had so admirably done, and for his stout heart.' On May 18
