giments, the officers were certain that
the 9th could never be faithless to their salt! The Native officers
and men were profuse in their expressions of loyalty, and as a proof
of their sincerity they arrested and disarmed several rebel sepoys,
who were making for their homes in Oudh and the adjoining districts.
As a further proof, they gave up the regimental pandit for
endeavouring to persuade them to mutiny. He was tried by a
Court-Martial composed of European and Native officers, found guilty,
and sentenced to be hanged. The sentence was carried out that same
afternoon. It was intended that the regiment should witness the
execution, but it did not reach the gaol in time; the men were
therefore marched back to their lines, and Stewart, in his capacity of
Interpreter, was ordered to explain to them the purpose for which
they had been paraded. While he was speaking a man of his own company
shouted out something. Stewart did not hear the words, and no one
would repeat them. The parade was then dismissed, when the same man,
tearing off his uniform, called upon his comrades not to serve a
Government which had hanged a Brahmin. A general uproar ensued. The
Commanding Officer ordered the few Sikhs in the regiment to seize the
ringleader; they did so, but not being supported by the rest they
released him. The Subadar Major was then told to arrest the mutineer,
but he took no notice whatever of the order. This Native officer had
been upwards of forty years in the regiment and was entitled to his
full pension. He had been a member of the Court-Martial which tried
the pandit, and, though a Brahmin himself, had given his vote in
favour of the prisoner being hanged; moreover he was a personal friend
of all the officers. Stewart, who had been for many years Adjutant,
knew him intimately, and believed implicitly in his loyalty. The man
had constantly discussed the situation with Stewart and others, and
had been mainly instrumental in disarming the sepoys who had passed
through Aligarh; and yet when the hour of trial came he failed as
completely as the last-joined recruit.

The British officers went amongst their men and tried to keep order,
but the excitement rapidly spread; some of the young soldiers began to
load, and the older ones warned the officers that it was time for them
to be off. The sepoys then plundered the treasury, broke open the gaol
doors, released the prisoners, and marched in a body towards Delhi.[1]

Stewart, b