not, unhappily, taken up prejudices against the Church in which he was brought up, I cannot doubt but that Havelock would have found in that society men of cultivated minds and simple tastes, who, caring little for money or rank, would have loved him for his own sake. Unhappily, he seems not to have sought for friends amongst the very men who could best have appreciated his worth. Hence his preference for the isolated and aimless life of an Englishman in Germany or Switzerland -a life for which his active mind quite unfitted him. However, as I have said before, after leaving wife and children at Bonn, Havelock landed once again in Bombay. In 1854 he was made Quarter-master-General of the Queen's troops in India-an appointment of little work, with a salary of nearly 3,000l. a year. The more important post of Adjutant-General was before long vacant, and Lord Hardinge, with a supreme regard for merit, at once selected Havelock to fill it. The old soldier, who had been in twenty-two Indian fights, including four of Gough's smashing combats, was at last, in his sixtieth year, placed in a post of honour and emolument.

On November 1,1856, the Governor-General in India declared war against Persia. Havelock, as usual, was wanted wherever there was a chance of a fight. With his friend Sir James Outram he led a division against the Persians, under the command of their Shah-zada or Prince. Never was he more cheery. The work,' he wrote, inspires and animates me, and God is with me.' When this campaign had been crowned with success, and peace concluded, Havelock returned to India. On reaching Bombay, at the end of May, he was astounded to hear that the Bengal native army had at many points broken into open mutiny, and that the fortress of Delhi

was in the hands of the mutineers. Havelock, at a glance, perceived the gravity of the situation, and declaring, 'This is the most tremendous convulsion I have ever witnessed,' set off at once, to place himself at the disposal of the Governor-General in Calcutta.

NOTE.

From 1846 to 1856 I may record the following brief abstract of events which will be narrated at greater length hereafter in a future volume.

1847.-Lord Hardinge resigned the office of GovernorGeneral, and was succeeded by Lord Dalhousie.

1848. The Sikhs rebel, murder the British agent at Mooltan. Early in 1849, the strong fort at Mooltan is stormed by the English under General Whish. Lord Gough takes the field, fights the Sikhs with indifferent success at Chillianwala, and finally overthrows them at Goojerat, between the Chenab and Jhelum rivers, on July 21. In the following month Lord Dalhousie annexed the Punjab. In 1850, the settlement of the new territory was carried on with vigour by the Lawrences, and many others of the best men in India. In 1852-3, the second Burmese war raged. In November 1855, the Court of Directors ordered the annexation of Oude. Lord Dalhousie carried out the order early in 1856, and then handed the portfolio of government to Lord Canning.

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CHAPTER XXVI.

THE INDIAN MUTINY AND REVOLT.

-HAVELOCK FIGHTS HIS

WAY TO LUCKNOW, AND DIES.

VOLUMES have already been written about the great convulsion through which British India passed in 1857 and the following year. It has thus happened that an affair, which, though momentous and dire, was not mysterious, has become overlaid with doubts and controversies. The simple action of the most ordinary human emotions may well explain all that terrible history. It is needless to beat about for remote causes, when the proximate influences are so near the surface.

The English had raised and equipped, in the Northwestern Provinces and in Oude, a powerful army of native Indian soldiers. The sepoy had been clothed, armed, and drilled, as much as possible, on the model of the English soldier. Forts, arsenals, treasuries, above all artillery, had been confided to his care. A mere handful of Europeans had been left to control this powerful Indian army. Whilst our territories had increased, our English soldiers had become fewer in number and more scattered. Our early prestige had been lost at Cabool. The Asiatics had seen the English beaten and all but destroyed in Affghanistan, and began to ask themselves and one another, why the white men should not be driven with equal ignominy out of

Hindostan. The native soldier, year after year, had been feeling his own power greater, and his master's authority less. He had been fondled, petted, and spoiled. Like a lion's cub, he was ready to spring upon the hand that had fed him so long. One regiment after another became disaffected. The minds of the soldiery were ready for mutiny. An excuse was not long wanting. The mutinous leaders pretended that an attempt had been made by the English to destroy the caste and overthrow the religion of the troops. The new riflecartridge had been greased, said they, with the fat of swine and of oxen, on purpose to defile the Mahomedan or Hindoo who handled it, or put it to his lips. Mutinous regiments, instead of being coerced, were paid up and discharged. The forbearance of the English was, as a matter of course, construed into fear. Early in 1857, the Sepoys mutinied right and left, burned down the British cantonments, plundered the treasuries, murdered every defenceless white man, woman, and child, threw open the jails, marched to Delhi, and proclaimed the old Mahomedan king, who lived there as the pensioner of the English, Emperor of Hindostan. All this was very sad for the English to witness or to endure. But there was no mystery about it. We Englishmen had put arms into the hands of the natives, and when their day came they had turned these arms against us. We had trusted men who were unworthy of trust, and we reaped the fruit of our own credulity. In like manner the natives of the North-western Provinces and of Oude, seeing their own brethren masters of the position, and their English rulers driven out of the open country, naturally enough sided with the native army. The arm of the magistrate had been paralysed; the magistrate himself had been murdered or driven

away; and anarchy prevailed all over Upper India, as a necessary consequence, when authority disappeared. Here, again, there is no mystery. At the first blush of the matter, men were glad enough to throw off authority. They had no passion for paying land-revenue and keeping up police-stations. But before many months of misrule had passed, the mass of the people were praying for the return of the magistrate, even though the tax-gatherer followed in his train.*

When Havelock arrived in Calcutta, he found that the provinces to the north-west of Bengal were in the state of revolt, and the army in the state of mutiny, which I have shortly described. Above, all round the English garrison at Lucknow, in the centre of the Oude province-a territory which had but lately passed under our yoke-insurgents armed with artillery, with muskets, with matchlocks, and even with bows and arrows, raged and swarmed in countless numbers. Our brave countrymen and countrywomen still held their position, against the myriads who clamoured for their blood.

At Cawnpoor our garrison was still more closely beset. To relieve these noble souls in the hour of their ex-* treme peril, was a task worthy of such a man as Havelock. Already the gallant Colonel Neill with his blue-caps (1st Fusiliers from Madras) had gone before, reaching Allahabad only just in time to save that all-important station and fortress for our countrymen. Havelock landed in Calcutta on June 7, and on the evening of

* In January 1858 I passed from Agra, through the district of Mynpoorie, on my way to join Sir Colin Campbell in the field as Civil Commissioner. I had in former years been well known to the people as magistrate of the Mynpoorie district. When they heard of my arrival, they turned out in crowds along the roadside, and thanked God that the English had come back again. 'For,' said they, the last six months every man has been knocking his nearest neighbour on the head.'

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