Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/174

Rh least wise seemed to exercise the chief influence, so that no precautions of any practical use were taken. The Commander-in-Chief too, able and sensible as he was and supported by a good and capable staff, appeared to accept the view that the threatening storm would subside or disperse, and that it was best to take no effective steps to meet it, as they might be misinterpreted and only precipitate the crisis instead of averting it.

Sir Henry entertained no such hopes; but so long as there was no local outbreak, or any great rising elsewhere, he could only keep keenly on the alert. It was at this time — April — that the Náná Sáhib, whose residence was near Cawnpur, made his appearance in Lucknow, and paraded about with a demeanour that excited Sir Henry's suspicions, and led to his cautioning Sir Hugh Wheeler against the wily Mahráthá. He was satisfied that the minds of the Sepoys were in an intensely excited and nervous if not irritated condition on the matter of infringement of caste. Even so early as the beginning of April a significant event had occurred. The surgeon of the 48th Native Infantry had put a bottle of medicine to his lips, and the men in hospital afterwards refused to take any of the medicines ordered. So dire was the offence taken at the surgeon's act, that his house was fired, and most of his property destroyed.

Although such a feeling as this prevailed, still, while no overt precautions were being taken elsewhere in his neighbourhood, Sir Henry could take