fears of the sipáhís, he added that they were by their conduct placing themselves in a position which the Government could not tolerate; that the men who, after his explanation, should persist in refusing to obey his orders would be brought to a court-martial, and suffer the consequences. He concluded by urging the native officers so to influence the men that the name of the regiment should not be blackened.
Colonel Mitchell might as well have spoken to the winds. He told his native officers what Sir John Hearsey at Barrackpur, and what commanding officers all over the country subsequently told theirs, but he told it in vain. There is no terror like a religious terror; and there can be no doubt that the astute fomentors of the revolt — the men of Oudh, of the North-west Provinces, and of the Bundelkhand — had so saturated the minds of the sipáhís at Barrackpur and elsewhere with a real terror, that not all the words of the most gifted men on earth would have sufficed to expel it. The Barrackpur sipáhís had in a moment communicated their fears to those of Barhámpur. The native officers listened silently, and promised to do all they could to calm the excitement. Mitchell returned to his quarters confident that he had done all he was capable of, but that 'all' was little indeed.
However, there was the parade to be held the following morning. To countermand that now would be an act of weakness of which Mitchell was incapable. But the thought never occurred to him. Scarcely had he reached his home when information reached him that the men had risen and were in open revolt.
It was too true. Whether the native officers had correctly interpreted Mitchell's words to their men; or whether, as is more probable, their minds were under the
