Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/174

148 new arrivals from England were dining at the regimental mess, they rose in revolt, and whilst one detachment attempted to secure the guns of the native battery, the bulk of the men gathered in front of their lines and received their officers as they rode to the spot with murderous volleys. Amongst those who fell were Captain Plunkett, an officer who loved his men, and who only that morning had expressed to them his admiration of their loyalty the Adjutant, Lieutenant Steward, the Quarter-Master, Lieutenant Hawes, and Ensigns Pringle and Munro. Of officers not belonging to the regiment, the Fort Adjutant, Major Birch, Lieutenant Innes of the engineers, and eight of the unposted boys but just arrived from England, were mercilessly slaughtered. Nor was the attempt to capture the guns less successful. Despite the exertions of Lieutenant Harward, commanding the battery, who narrowly escaped with his life, and of Lieutenant Alexander of the Oudh Irregulars, who was killed, the guns were dragged into the lines of the mutineers. The native gunners, in fact, and the troopers of the Oudh Irregulars had fraternised with the rebellious sipáhís. The other officers of the 6th succeeded in securing refuge within the fort.

But was the fort a sure refuge for them? At the moment it seemed very doubtful. And if the fort were to go, the sacrifice of the lives of those behind its ramparts would be the least part of the evil. The strongest and most important link between Calcutta and Kánhpur would in that case be severed. The bulk of the troops garrisoning the fort were Asiatics. There was one company of the 6th N. I., and there was the wing of the Sikh regiment of Fíruzpur. On the other side were sixty-five European invalided soldiers, the officers, the clerks, the women, and the children. The temper of the Sikhs was known to