CHAPTER VII.
THE EFFECT, THROUGHOUT INDIA, OF THE SEIZURE OF DEHLÍ.
The story of the events of the 10th of May at Mírath, and of the 11th at Dehlí, came as a surprise alike to the revolters all over India and to the Government. It came as a surprise to the former because the astute men who had fomented the ill-feeling against the British, which by this time had become pretty general, had laid down as a cardinal principle that there were to be no isolated outbreaks; that the explosion should take place on the same day all over the Bengal Presidency; and they had fixed upon Sunday, the 31st of May, as the day of the general rising. But the chief conspirators had to employ a large number of instruments. The rashness or premature action of a single instrument may destroy the best laid plot. The heads of the conspiracy had corrupted the 3d Native Cavalry and the 20th Regiment N. I., and had formed their committees in these regiments. But, at a critical conjuncture, these latter had been unable to restrain the rank and file of the regiments from premature action. Excited to fever pitch, eighty-five men of the 3d L. C. had, with the sympathy of their comrades, refused to receive the proffered cartridges. Brought to trial for the offence, they had been condemned, sentenced, and lodged in gaol. This sentence had been too great a stimulus to the passions of the troopers to allow them to await patiently the day fixed
