no friends. The whole country was armed and in uproar. Then came news of massacres of men, women, and children. At Agra he had a large European and Eurasian population, and a great fort, with an armoury, which it was necessary to guard. He could not therefore spare a British soldier. Every weapon which he laid hold of snapped in his hand. Native States and their contingents alike proved broken reeds. His powerlessness at the last overwhelmed his spirit. A week before he died he attributed his mortal illness to his utter impotence. Enforced inaction at such a time was literally death to him.
Contrast between the course of affairs in the North-West Provinces and in the Punjab is impossible, because their circumstances were wholly dissimilar. In the Punjab was a very considerable English army. The Province was disarmed. The Sikhs had but recently been subjected to crushing defeat. The best military and civil officers in all India were at the disposal of the Punjab Government. The Punjabi hated the Sepoy, Hindu or Muhammadan, and the Mutiny was a Sepoy revolt.
'Our people being without arms,' wrote Sir John Lawrence to Mr. Colvin on September 14 (five days after the eyes of him whom he addressed had closed on all earthly tumults) — 'Our people being without arms has been doubtless the main cause of our success. The Sikhs have a traditional hatred of Delhi, and most of the Muhammadans do not sympathize with His Imperial Majesty.'
