to reconquer the North-west, will probably have brought home to the mind of the reader that, to the north and north-west of Allahábád, Dehlí was the central point, the place upon the occupation of which the fate of the towns and districts in those provinces, the fate of Central India, the fate of the Panjáb itself, depended. The whole of the North-west, including Bundelkhand and Rohilkhand, had risen because Dehlí was held by the rebels. The assertion in that Imperial city of the rule of the Mughal was the cause: — insurrection all over the country was the consequence. The truth of this axiom was felt more clearly every day by those who were responsible for the maintenance of British authority in the provinces and districts which remained loyal Equally was it felt by the native princes who adhered to the British connection, by those who had shaken it off, and by the watchers of the atmosphere. If the British should be compelled to abandon their position before Dehlí, it would be scarcely possible to prevent a tremendous conflagration. Most certainly the Panjáb would have risen. In that event, most probably, the districts to the north-west and west of Allahábád would have been completely severed, for a time, from the British.
Dehlí being thus the centre of the situation, the point on the possession of which depended the fate of the surrounding districts, it becomes me, before detailing the result of the struggle before its walls, to take a bird's-eye view of the provinces and districts in which its influence had made itself the most felt. I propose, therefore, to glance at the events which had occurred in the Ságar and Narbada territories, in Central India, in Rájpútána, in the districts dependent upon Mírath, in Rohilkhand, and, finally, in the Panjáb, before I describe the 'crowning mercy' which was vouchsafed to the British arms in the city which had become the kernel and focus of the revolt.
