archy. The lascar, in reply, laughed at him for talking of defilement, when he said, 'You will all soon be biting cartridges smeared with the fat of the cow and the pig.' He then told the sipáhí the method of the new cartridges. The incident occurred when the minds of the sipáhís had been inflamed, in the manner already recounted, to a high state of tension. The story spread like wildfire. Thenceforward the sipáhís were as soft clay in the hands of the chief conspirators.
Some of these, it cannot be doubted, were to be found amongst the numerous followers of the King of Oudh. The Government of India had permitted that prince, on his removal from the province of which he was still the titular king, to take up his residence in a suburb of Calcutta. He had arrived there in April 1856 with a numerous following. His quarters had already become notorious as the Alsatia of Calcutta, If, as is probable, he was no party to the intrigues carried on in his name, or on his behalf, there were yet many of those who adhered to him who were less scrupulous. These men were the fellow-countrymen of the majority of the men who served the British, and entirely sympathised with them. Subsequent events proved that communications between the sipáhís in Fort William and at Barrackpur and some of the King's adherents had been frequent. It was unfortunate that, at such a period, at a crisis so momentous so large a number of exiles from Oudh, sharing the indignation generally felt among the natives at the annexation of that province, should have been located close to a populous city, dependent for its safety on one weak European regiment.
Important consequences speedily followed the discovery of the fact regarding the greased cartridges. On the 26th of January the telegraph house at Barrackpur
