Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/165

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Outbreaks in Oudh.
139

circumstances of peculiar atrocity. The number of men, women, and children so murdered amounted to twenty-four.

At Maláun, forty-four miles to the north of Sítápur, the natives rose as soon as they heard of the events at the latter place. At Muhamdí, on the Rohilkhand frontier, the work of butchery on unarmed men, women, and children, on the 4th of June, was not exceeded in atrocity by any similar event during the outbreak. At Faizábád, at Sikrorá, at Gondah, at Báhráich, at Malapur, at Sultánpur, at Saloní, at Daryábád, at Purwá, in fact at all the centres of administration in the province there were, during the first and second weeks of June, mutinies of the sipáhís, risings of the people, and conduct generally on the part of the large landowners which proved that their sympathy was with the revolters. By the 12th of June Sir Henry Lawrence had realised that the only spot in Oudh in which British authority was still respected was the Residency of Lakhnao.

We left Sir Henry chasing, on the morning of the 31st of May, the mutinied sipáhís from the station of Múdkípur. Between that time and the 11th June his health, undermined by long service in India, had given way. But the measures of Mr Gubbins, the officer who acted for him during his illness, and which were in direct opposition to the principles which he had inculcated, had the effect of rousing him from his bed of sickness. One of his strong points was to maintain at Lakhnao as many sipáhís as would serve loyally and faithfully. Without the aid of sipáhís the Residency, he felt, could not be defended against the masses which a province in insurrection could bring against it. Mr Gubbins, during his illness, had despatched to their homes all the sipáhís belonging to the province of Oudh. Sir Henry promptly