Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/164

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138
The Lakhnao Sipáhís rise.

it resulted in the murder by them of all their officers save one. Hutchinson was able to return safely to his post.

Before this mutiny occurred (7th and 8th June) the catastrophe at Lakhnao had come upon Sir Henry. On the night of the 30th of May the greater number of the sipáhís of the 71st N. I. rose in revolt, fired the bungalows, murdered Brigadier Handscomb and Lieutenant Grant, wounded Lieutenant Hardinge, and attempted further mischief The attitude of the European troops, vigilant at the posts assigned them by the Brigadier-General, completely baffled them, and they retired in the night to Múdkípur, murdering Lieutenant Raleigh on their way. Thither, at daylight, Sir Henry followed them, and though deserted by the troopers of the 7th N. L. C, who joined the mutinied 71st N. I., and by some men of the 48th N. I., drove them from their position, and pursued them for some miles. Their action had, in fact, proved advantageous to Sir Henry Lawrence. It had rid him of pretended friends, and had shown him upon whom he could rely. The great bulk of the 13th N. I. had proved loyal; but the whole of the 7th Cavalry, more than two-thirds of the 71st N. I., a very large proportion of the 48th N. I., and a few of the 13th N. I. had shown their hands. Their departure enabled Sir Henry still further to concentrate his resources.

Every day brought intelligence from the outlying districts of the seriousness of the crisis. At Sítápur, fifty-one miles from Lakhnao, there had been incendiarisms at the end of May. On the 2d of June the sipáhís of the 10th Oudh Irregulars, there stationed, had thrown into the river the flour sent from the town for their consumption, on the pretext that it had been adulterated with the view of destroying their caste. On the 3d the 41st N. I. and the 9th Irregular Cavalry broke out in mutiny, and murdered many of their officers and of the residents, under