of the illustrious lady to whose direct rule they had been transferred.
Published on the 1st of November 1858, this proclamation immediately followed the complete collapse of the Mutiny. Practically there remained only the capture of Tántiá Topí and the expulsion of the remnant of the rebels from Oudh. How these ends were accomplished I have told in the two chapters immediately preceding. In both these cases the conclusion was foregone. It was but a question of a brief time. The rebels in Central India and in Oudh, as well as those few still remaining in Western Bihár and in Chutiá Nagpur, represented the dying embers of a fire which had been extinguished. It now remains for me to sum up in a few words the moral of the Mutiny, the lessons which it taught us, and its warnings.
But before I proceed to this summing up, I am anxious to say a word or two to disabuse the minds of those who may have been influenced by rumours current at the period as to the nature of the retaliation dealt out to the rebels by the British soldiers in the hour of their triumph. I have examined all those rumours — I have searched out the details attending the storming of Dehlí, of Lakhnao, and of Jhánsí — and I can emphatically declare that, not only was the retaliation not excessive, it did not exceed the bounds necessary to ensure the safety of the conquerors. Unfortunately war is war. It is the meeting in contact of two bodies of men exasperated against each other, alike convinced that victory can only be gained by the destruction of the opponent. Under such circumstances it is impossible to give quarter. The granting of quarter would mean, as was proved over and over and over again, the placing in the hands of an enemy the power to take life treacherously. It was well understood, then, by both sides at the storming of the cities I
