Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/126

100 them outside the cantonment. But as they approached the intrenchment they halted, despite the orders and entreaties of their officers, and endeavoured to escalade it. The sipáhís who had been allowed to remain within threw to them scaling ladders, and about 300 of them succeeded in effecting an entrance. The company of the 61st held them at bay until two other companies of that regiment arrived. The mutinied sipáhís made a last desperate effort, and on the failure of that fled in confusion. The Brigadier, instead of pursuing them, allowed them to roam about for a time unmolested. Gaining courage from the supineness of the authorities, the sipáhís then burned the church, the Roman Catholic chapel, the 61st mess-house, two vacated hospitals, and several bungalows. The Brigadier, in sheer panic, then caused the regimental magazines of the two mutinous regiments to be blown up. Hardly had this been accomplished when information reached him that the men of the 45th were about to start for Dehlí. Then, for the first time, he acted with vigour. With one party he disarmed the 57th N. I., whilst with another he pursued the 45th, caught and dispersed them. The greater number of them, however, and some of the 57th, found their way to the revolted city. Few affairs were worse managed during the rebellion than the affair of Fíruzpur. It almost matched the blundering at Mírath.

At Alígarh the four companies of the native regiment stationed there, the 9th N. I., considered one of the best regiments of the Bengal army, mutinied on the 20th of May. The circumstances were somewhat peculiar. Alígarh lies on the grand trunk road eighty-two miles to the south-east of Dehlí, Apparently the events of the 10th and 12th of May, at Mírath and Dehlí, had not shaken the loyalty of the sipáhís. They continued re-