252 INDIGNATION AT HOME. Nussereebad disarmed; the two hundred men of the 12th Bombay Native Infantry, you have no doubt heard, were disarmed, or most of them, at last.-Yours, Colonel H. B. HENDERSON to Colonel KEITH YOUNG. EDEN. LONDON, GRESHAM HOUSE, 8th August. By the time this reaches you, you will have proof of the anxiety here to preserve India. There will be, including those now in India or near at hand, between fifty and sixty thousand troops, all European; and more yet will follow if necessary. England is determined to assist you to the utmost; and if fresh outbreaks and defections do not arise, and the feeling against us does not break out into actual enmity on every hand in the East, we shall yet trust that you will hold your own till ample means reach you, not only to avenge the past, but to put things on firmer footing than before. But the loss and destruction meantime we dare not think of. The fall of Delhi we hope to hear of by the coming mail, and that the inhuman wretches have been taught a fearful lesson. It is strange to hear the mildest here talk of what they would do to the monsters. One thing mentioned the other day will show the horror with which the cruelties are here thought of. 'The military authorities ought to flog every rebel, before blowing from a gun or shooting or hanging-nay, again to introduce the knout-not in cruel revenge, but to mark the sense entertained of the unheard-of atrocities committed on women and children, and to show that mere death by a soldier's hand is too good for such monsters.' This was from a man who is the meekest Christian I know. I say Amen to it; and if we are to hang or shoot all ringleaders and rebels, I say also, let them first be flogged and disgraced. I hear that the Oude family here are loud in their protestations of innocence but their feelings creep out. The young Prince not many evenings ago told one of our Army that the row was all right, and that he wished he were in India to share it! The police are watching them. It is strange that up to the latest advices the 8th and 21st Native Infantry, which formed the 1st and 2nd battalions of the INDIAN RELIEF FUND. 9th-my old corps-had not broken out. 253 True, they are both beside European regiments, and therefore probably quiet; but even their quietness is pleasing to me, though it is thirty years since I was with them. I have some business letters to write, and must conclude this stupid and anxious one. Do not think I am fearful of the result for India; no one here is this, but we are thinking of you all. LONDON, GRESHAM HOUSE, 21st August. Most unexpectedly it has fallen to my lot to take the initiative in getting up a large public meeting at the Mansion House, which took place yesterday, and I am on the Committee sitting to-day to carry out the wishes of the meeting. I have no time to write to you except very hurriedly. I have no letter by the last mail from any of you, but know how much you are occupied; and I see in the Times a short extract from a letter from you to an official at Sealkote, saying you were well before Delhi on the 24th June, and thought the city might be carried in a few hours were it not thought prudent to wait for reinforcements. The hurried meeting at the Mansion House got up under so many difficulties-the Lord Mayor's friends and all public men being out of town-went off admirably, and to-day all the mayors throughout the United Kingdom are called on by the Lord Mayor to get up meetings. No doubt there will be a universal display of sympathy from home for the fearful calamity which has overtaken you all in India. The Lord Mayor has to-day written to Lord Canning announcing this, and sending as the first-fruits of subscriptions £2000, or some such sum, to begin with. The Governor-General is addressed for this purpose, that the people here may hope their contributions will be well applied. There are full accounts in the Times of to-day of yesterday's meeting; but I have cut out and enclose a short notice, abridged by the reporter of the Daily Telegraph, of the proceedings at the Mansion House. The Court of Directors, I may say, from what Sir James Melville has stated to me, will do their best. All the large firms have come forward handsomely. You have had hard work and much fighting at Delhi. Your 254 HELP FROM THE MANSION HOUSE. army has behaved admirably. We hear of General Barnard's rumoured death, and are in dreadful anxiety for further intelligence. Colonel H. B. HENDERSON to Mrs KEITH YOUNG, Simla. I must hastily write a few lines to tell you how anxiously we are thinking of you at this time of trouble and danger. All yesterday and the greater part of to-day I have been engaged at the Mansion House, and am going there again immediately, being one of the busiest in the general subscription which has been put on foot in London and throughout the United Kingdom for the sufferers by the late Mutiny in India. Never has an event for centuries aroused such feeling and sympathy in England. I have enclosed to your husband an abstract of the meeting which took place at the Mansion House yesterday for their relief, and to-day the Lord Mayor is sending out to Lord Canning £2000, the immediate first-fruits of the collection. It fell upon me to get up the meeting, which the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress most kindly took in hand, and managed the thing beautifully. It would show to India how much it is cared for by all at home.-Believe me ever, your most affectionate Father, H. B. H. CHAPTER XII. SIEGE OF DELHI (continued)—ARRIVAL OF SIEGE-TRAIN. Colonel KEITH YOUNG to his wife. CAMP, DELHI CANTONMENTS, Tuesday, 1st September. The siege-train was to leave Paniput this morning, and say that it arrives on the 4th, a very few days ought to suffice to put the guns and mortars in battery, and then it will not take long to settle the wretched city. The troops-Rifles and Artillery-from Meerut should reach here the same day as the siege-train, as they are coming a short cut by Paniput, instead of by Kurnaul as originally intended. What lots of troops there will be here soon, for the Cashmere contingent is also on its way to this place, and will arrive, I believe, in a few days; and amongst other horrible implements of war there are two 13-inch mortars coming from Umritsur, with a great number of shells-immense, large things -sufficient to demolish the whole of the largest building they may fall upon, and these mortars carry an immense distance. We have nothing here now larger than 8-inch; there are, however, plenty of 10-inch with the siege-train, and these are most formidable in their effects. There is another letter from Agra to-day of the 27th, but no fresh news, just a recapitulation of what I have told you already, except I do not think I mentioned that Captain Peel, with his Naval Brigade, was bringing up a 68-pounder. What a grand thing it would be if they could get it up to Cawnpore in time to be of use in destroying the wretched mutineers before Lucknow ! had got some other Arthur Becher told me to-day that cause for alarm, having heard that some hill Raja or other had written down to the King of Delhi to ask what reward would be given for murdering all the Europeans in the hills; and also 256 LETTER FROM MR BARTLE Frere. writes, I believe, to Norman, for he told me that the Persians were in full march on Candahar. He is really a wretched alarmist, and it's Arthur Becher's opinion that he ought to be sent away from Simla. Of course the story of the Raja is some concoction of his own; and as to the Persians, accounts have been received of a directly contrary nature, and that they are evacuating Herat. I am sorry to hear of Mrs Greathed being so unwell. I often see Greathed; he told me of his wife's illness. He and Sandie Robertson are living together; the latter has had a very smart attack of fever, but is recovering. One of the Peshawar regiments has, you see, 'gone' at last; it must make Mrs P― very anxious. Mactier is much obliged for the letter you sent; he still calls this a weary, weary' world! I hope Sir Colin Campbell will make him his surgeon. (Diary) 1st September.-Contented myself with walking up and down the street, and at work all day at that Ferozepore syce-driver's court-martial. Late in going out, but managed to get as far as the burial-ground to show the mistry the situation of poor Chester's grave; bricks are being collected to build a tomb. A lovely moonlight night. From Mr BARTLE FRERE to Colonel KEITH YOUNG. KURRACHEE, 1st September. MY DEAR KEITH YOUNG,-It was only when I was reading over a second time this very interesting letter from Arthur, of which this is an extract, that I observed the message to you. I have sent the original to my wife, and give you the whole of what he says of the affair at Aboo, in case his letter to you should have miscarried. We have letters a day or two later from Ahmedabad and Deesa, which describe all quiet there and at Aboo; but the dâks from Neemuch and Nussereebad to Deesa had been plundered. Five men of our 12th Native Infantry have been hanged at Nussereebad. The 2nd Cavalry at Neemuch are in a very ticklish state. You will see by the papers all is quiet again at Kolapoor, and in the south Mahratta country; but there has been partial disaffection and three executions in Maclean's 29th Native Infantry |