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 CHAPTER VIII

The Mutinies: Death, 1857

In the midst of these labours, the Mutinies of May, 1857, fell upon the Lieutenant-Governor. He was at Agra, alone, Mrs. Colvin having gone to Europe earlier in the year. The three preceding summers had been spent happily at Náini Tál, in the Himálayas, and Mr. Colvin believed himself to have taken office on the condition that his summers should be spent in the Hills. Later, this understanding was questioned; and in 1857 he was to remain in the plains. His family went to Europe; and at Agra, on May 11, the news of the outbreak at Meerut reached him.

It has been seen what were the circumstances of the Province of which, in 1853, he took charge, and what was the English force that held it. In May, 1857, in two important respects, its defensive condition was even worse. Oudh had been annexed in 1856. That Province was surrounded on three sides by the North-West. It was the chief recruiting ground of the Sepoy army. It was seething with suppressed rage, and ready to throw fuel fresh and fresh on any flame lit across its border. All told, there were not 1,000 British soldiers in Oudh. Again, in the North-West the chief British force, it has been