Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/24

 Meerut, some two hundred and fifty miles to the north. Within two days the news reached Etawah and a small party of the mutineers appeared a day or so later. These were, after stout resistance, either captured or shot.

"What happened immediately after this is graphically told by Kaye in his work on the Sepoy Mutiny. He pays a fitting tribute to the subject of this article. He writes: ^The Magistrate and Collector was Mr. A. O. Hume, a son of the great English reformer, who had inherited the high public spirit and the resolute courage of his father.' He continues: 'On May i8th and 19th, another party of fugitives from the 3rd Cavalry appeared at Juswuntnuggur, ten miles from the town of Etawah. Being called upon to surrender by a patrol of police, they made a show of submission and then shot down their captors and took possession of a Hindu temple in a walled enclosure ; there they prepared to defend themselves. When Hume heard of this he at once ordered his buggy, armed himself as best he could (with shot gun and revolver) and accompanied by his assistant, Mr. Daniell, started at 9 a.m. It was a blazing hot day and neither had broken his fast. On arriving, Hume invested the place with some irregular troopers and police. The difficulty was that the people were on the side of the mutineers. It was hopeless to assault, as they could obtain no support, on account of the great danger of storming. As the day passed, and the sun was setting, these two Englishmen, followed by only one policeman, made an effort to carry the place by themselves. The native was shot down and Daniell was shot through the face. Hume heroically got him away through the crowd to the carriage. They had killed one mutineer and mortally wounded another. The rebels escaped, during a storm, in the night.'

"Kaye adds ; 'This was one of the first of those heroic