Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/90



parade at Mírath, the particulars of which are told in the last chapter, took place on a Saturday morning. The sipáhís who assisted at it had then the remainder of that day, the following night, and the early part of Sunday, in which to mature the plans rising in their minds.

In their opinion the eighty-five men who had refused to take the cartridges, and of whose degradation they had been witnesses on that Saturday morning, were simply martyrs for their faith. They had been a little bolder than their comrades: that was all. The idea which had prompted their refusal was common to all the sipáhís at Mírath. They, too, had lost faith in their masters, and their minds had been equally ready to believe the stories regarding bone dust and greased cartridges which designing men were daily pouring into their ears. They had not been insensible to the reproaches which their ironed and shackled comrades had cast upon them as they marched off, prisoners, to the gaol. They felt that they should deserve these reproaches if they were to continue silent witnesses of their degradation. They knew, though the Government wilfully shut their eyes to the fact, that the feelings under which their comrades had acted were wide-spread among the sipáhís of the Bengal army. That night's post would convey to every station in India the story of the punishment of their comrades, and of