Dragoons, and their sabres were as deeply stained with the blood of their misguided countrymen.
Some of the ruthless acts committed by the rebels in this fearful mutiny are too horrible to be written. Local tradition still tells a most fearful history of British ladies who fell victims to the brutal lust of ravishers; of children dragged from their little dormitories to have their brains dashed out against the walls; of disgusting mutilations committed on the bodies of the slaughtered. Captain Ely, of the 69th, with his infant son in his arms, was butchered in the presence of Mrs, Ely; twenty European officers, besides various members of their families, were slaughtered in cold blood; one hundred and sixty-four soldiers perished, and eighty-four were more or less wounded.
The standard of Tippoo Sultaun had been hoisted on the palace, within the fortress, almost as soon as the insurrection broke out; and no doubt was entertained that the sons of Tippoo were partakers in the plot. In the first emotions, therefore, of indignation and horror, the enraged soldiers were bent upon entering the palace, and glutting their revenge upon its helpless inmates; but Colonel Gillespie, greatly to his honour, prevented the accomplishment of this threatened catastrophe. It was said that, had not this gallant officer acted with such promptness and spirit, the insurgents, in the course of a few days, would have been joined by fifty thousand men from Marwar, Mysore, and other parts.
A special commission having been appointed to inquire into the origin of the mutiny, it appeared that the innovation in dress, and the residence of the Mysore family at Vellore, were the leading causes, and that the plot was to have broken out on the 17th of June. A communication to this effect had indeed been made to an officer of the garrison by Mustapha Beg, a Sepoy of the first battalion 1st regiment; but the native officers had succeeded in inducing a belief that Mustapha Beg was insane. He was presented, by order of Government, with two
