Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/91

Rh their own passive acquiescence. Such a disgrace was not to be borne. They must, before the world was forty-eight hours older, atone for their apparent acquiescence in the punishment of the men whose views they shared by action which should rouse all India.

In the consultations of that Saturday afternoon and evening the sipáhís of the three regiments called to mind that it was the custom of the English to hold Church parade on Sunday, morning and evening, and that on such occasions the men wore only their side-arms. The evening seemed to them more suitable for their enterprise than the morning, for in India there is no twilight, and the darkness which would rapidly supervene on the setting of the sun would greatly increase the confusion which the surprise of the sudden rising would produce.

But little occurred in Mírath on that eventful Sunday to warn the English of the coming danger. It was recollected afterwards that the native servants, alike in the barracks and in private houses, had strangely absented themselves from their customary duties; but no suspicions were aroused. It was the very height of the blasting season which scorches up vegetation, and renders the outer air scarcely endurable until the time of sunset approaches. The Sunday, then, passed like other Sundays, and when the bells began to toll for the evening service nothing had occurred to give any warning of the storm which was ready to burst.

But as the residents and the troops marched to the sacred edifice it became evident that some great event was pending. The native nurse of the chaplain had warned him, as he was setting out with his wife, that they would have a fight with the sipáhís. On their way the church-goers heard the unwonted sounds of bugling and musket