der to destroy the caste of the masses and
convert them to Christianity.

For a brief interval it was hoped that the disaffection was suppressed.
Excitement manifested itself in various ways at different stations
throughout the length of Hindustan and the Punjab--at Benares, Lucknow,
Agra, Ambala, and Sealkote. In some stations there were incendiary
fires; in others the sepoys were wanting in their usual respect to their
European officers. But it was believed that the storm was spending
itself, and that the dark clouds were passing away.

Suddenly on May 3d there was an explosion at Lucknow. A regiment of Oudh
Irregular Infantry, previously in the service of the Mogul, broke out in
mutiny and began to threaten their European officers. Sir Henry
Lawrence, the new Chief Commissioner, had a European regiment at his
disposal, namely the Thirty-second Foot. That same evening he ordered
out the regiment, and a battery of eight guns manned by Europeans,
together with four sepoy regiments, three of infantry and one of
cavalry. With this force he proceeded to the lines of the mutineers,
about seven miles off. The Oudh Irregulars were taken by surprise; they
saw infantry and cavalry on either side, and the European guns in front.
They were ordered to lay down their arms, and they obeyed. At this
moment the artillery lighted their port fires. The mutineers were seized
with a panic, and rushed away in the darkness; but the leaders and most
of their followers were pursued and arrested by the native infantry and
cavalry, and confined pending trial. Subsequently it transpired that the
native regiments sympathized with the mutineers, and would have shown it
but for their dread of Sir Henry Lawrence and the Europeans. The
energetic action of Lawrence sufficed to maintain order for another
month in Oudh. Meanwhile the Thirty-fourth Native Infantry was disbanded
at Barrackpur, and again it was hoped that the disaffection was stayed.

The demon of mutiny was only scotched. Within a week of the outbreak at
Lucknow, the great military station of Meerut was in a blaze. Meerut was
only forty miles from Delhi, and the largest cantonment in India. There
were three regiments of sepoys, two of infantry and one of cavalry; but
there were enough Europeans to scatter four times the number; namely, a
battalion of the Sixtieth Rifles, a regiment of Dragoon Guards known as
the "Carabineers," two troops of horse-artillery, and a light
field-battery.