Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/289

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Central India.
259

nursed her resentment, until the revolt of Mírath and the seizure of Dehlí gave her the long-wished-for opportunity. She then, in June 1857, gained to her cause the sipáhís stationed at Jhánsí, enticed the English officers and their families to accept her protection, and had them foully murdered. On the 9th of June she caused herself to be proclaimed Rání of Jhánsí.

Bundelkhand, and Réwá or Bághelkhand, include, besides Réwá, the territories of Tehrí or Urchah, Datiá, Chatrpur, Pannah, and Ajaigarh. The area of the combined territories is 22,400 square miles, and the population 3,200,000. More than half of this belongs to Réwá. The Rájá of Réwá was loyal to the British connection in 1857, and having the good fortune to have at his elbow, as his adviser, an officer of marked ability, the late Major Willoughby Osborne, he was able not only to put down mutiny within his territory, but to assist in repressing it outside its borders. The Rájás of Urchah and of Ajaigarh rendered likewise all the assistance in their power to their British overlord. The territories of the Rájás of the other places mentioned were subjected to the invasion and plundering of the rebels, but in their hearts they too were loyal.

Between Chatrpur and the Jamnah lies the district represented by the stations of Náogáng and Bandah, occupied by native regiments, and by several small states ruled by native chiefs. The sipáhís at Náogáng, belonging to the regiments stationed at Jhánsí, mutinied as soon as they had heard of the action of their comrades at that place. The British officers and their wives, forced to flee, were hospitably received by the Rájá of Chatrpur, but had to quit that place, and eventually succeeded in reaching Bandah. The Nuwáb of Bandah received them and other British fugitives kindly. The time arrived, however,