Page:The Seven Cities of Delhi.djvu/328

 CHAPTER XI

THE MUTINY OF 1857, AND THE SIEGE

Outbreak at Meerut — The mutineers at Delhi — Defence of the magazine — The flight — Advance of the avenging army — Battle of Ghazi-ud-din Nagar — Battle of Badli-ki-Sarai — Events of the siege — Arrival of the siege train in September — Siege batteries — The assault — Fighting in the city — The city re-taken — Capture of the king.

Plan of the Siege- Works, p. 294.

On the 10th of May, 1857, the Sepoys at Meerut mutinied, shot their officers, and started in a wild rush for Delhi, leaving the work of murder and outrage to be carried on by the scoundrels, who were the hangers-on of every British cantonment. The immediate cause of the mutiny had been the sentencing of eighty-five troopers of the 3rd Regular Bengal Light Cavalry to considerable terms of imprisonment, owing to their refusal to handle cartridges which for years they had used without the slightest protest. This was the work of agitators, who had represented that the cartridges were prepared in a