Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/713

 CiiAr XI I] MUTINY OF SEPOYS SUPPRESSED. 679

becoming suspicious of each other's good faith, betrayed a willingness to treat a.u. 1:04 separately. The emperor, in particular, offered to enter into regular alliance with the Company. It became unnecessary to make a Unal choice between these overtures before the confederacy Wiis broken up, by the sudden departure of the vizier, who, alarmed for the safety of his own territories, threatened by a sti-ong detachment which Carnac had sent across the Ganges, hastened off" to defend them.

Major Carnac was succeeded by Major Hector Monro, wlio arrived with a Monro reinforcement which he brought by sea from Bombay. He found the mutinous cannu: n» spirit wiiich had crippled his predecessor's operations .still prevalent. On the inulBf"'""^ very day of his arrival, a whole battalion of sepoys set off" with their arms and accoutrements to join the enemy. A body of troops sent in pursuit, came u[)on them while asleep, and brought them back as prisoners. It was absolutely neces- sary to make an example, and Monro was determined that it .should be of a kind sufficient to strike terror. Having picked out twenty-four who were understood to be the most criminal of the mutineers, he brought them before a com't-martial of native officers, who found them guilty, and sentenced them to any kind of death the commander should appoint. He immediately ordered that four of them should be blown away from guns. When they were tied up for this pur- pose, four gi-enadiers who had been condemned, stepped forward and requested that, as they had always had the post of honour, they should be the first to suffer. This extraordinary precedence was allowed them. After they had suff'ered, the sepoys intimated tlirough their European officers that they would not allow any more to be executed. Monro was not to be thus deterred. After nis firmne««

. IT /« '" quelling

loading the field-pieces with grape, and ])lacing them at intervals m the line of mutiny. p]uropeans, he ordered the sepoys to ground their arms, intimating that, on the least symptom of refiLsal, he would order the artillery to fire upon them. They were completely overawed, and looked on without a murmur, while sixteen more were blown from the guns. Four remained, but with no intention to respite them, for they were immediately sent off" to another cantonment, where, from the frequency of desertion from it, it appeared that the example of an execution was particularly required.

The mutinous spirit being thus quelled, Monro brought the troops out of cantonments as soon as the cessation of the rains permitted, and on the 1 5th of September commenced his march westward at the head of an army consisting of n^ victi.r>- 857 Europeans, 5297 sepoys, and 918 native cavalry. 111 all /0/2 men, with twenty field-pieces. After encountering some resistance at the passage of the Sone, where some breastworks had been thrown up, and suff'ering considerable annoj'ance from cavalry which hung on his line of march, he arrived on the 22d of October at the town and fort of Buxar, situated on the right bank of the Ganges, nearly equidistant between Patna and Benares. Here the Vizier Sujah Dovvlah and Meer Co.ssim were occupying an entrenched camp, with an army