was fired. The same day one of the sergeants attached to Fort William reported to Cavenagh a remarkable conversation, between two sipáhís, which he had overheard. It was to the effect that the Europeans forming the garrison were entirely in the power of the sipáhís; that it would be easy to master the arsenal and the magazines, to slay the Europeans as they slept, then to possess themselves of the fort. They added that the firing of the telegraph house was the first incident in the far-reaching plot.
Cavenagh, who, as Town-Major, was responsible to the Governor-General for the safety of Fort William, took at once measures to baffle the designs of which he had been informed, and then drove straight to Lord Canning to report the circumstance to him. Lord Canning listened to Cavenagh with the deepest interest, and sanctioned the measures he proposed. These were to transfer from Dam-Dam, where one wing of the regiment which was responsible for the safety of the Presidency, the 53d Foot, was located, one company to Fort William. For the moment the outbreak was deferred.
Many little circumstances came at this period to intimate to the few who preferred not to live in a fool's paradise that something strange was impending. At Barrackpur,on the left bank of the river Húglí, fifteen miles above Calcutta, were stationed four native regiments — the 2d Grenadiers, the 34th N. I., the 43d Light Infantry, and the 70th N. I. At Barhámpur, 120 miles above Calcutta and five below Murshidábád, the capital of the Nuwáb-Názims of Bengal, was one native regiment, the 19th N. I. Between Calcutta and Dánápur, in Bihár, 344 miles from the capital, there was but one English regiment, the 53d, already referred to, and that was, as I have said, distributed between Dam-Dam and Calcutta. The space
