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Rh after the annexation, emissaries went out from Oudh into the North-West Provinces, and surreptitiously predicted that an appalling calamity was close at hand: that an unclean cartridge, greased with swine’s and cow’s fat, had been distributed among the Sepoys with the object of converting them to Christianity; and that before long the whole population would be forced — if need be, at the point of the bayonet — to follow the example of their brethren-in-arms, as a matter of course! What wonder, then, that this atrocious “prophecy,” so to call it, had the effect of spreading alarm, like wildfire, throughout Upper India; and that consequently, in their credulity, thousands and tens of thousands of ignorant victims became thoroughly imbued with hatred to the Government! Indeed, within the memory of that phenomenal and venerable authority, the “oldest inhabitant,” never were the natives of the North-West Provinces in so great a paroxysm of fear; and this fear, in an intensified form, ultimately extended to the Sepoys themselves, with the terrible results known to the civilised world. By way, too, of giving plausibility to the “prophecy,” and for purposes as obvious as they were mischievous, unleavened cakes (chupaties), alleged to have been made by Christians, were sedulously circulated among the Hindu villages throughout Upper India. Naturally, therefore, this infamous treachery, preying as it did in a direct manner upon the caste bigotry or fanaticism of a superstitious people, also created a profound impression in their minds. 