ieved that the rumours were greatly
exaggerated, and that, if there was anything really in it, the matter
would soon be put to rights by the Government, either by proclamation or
by force of arms. But report followed report and the mutiny continued,
when the massacre at Cawnpore took place, and the affair at Lucknow, and
the horrors enacted at the Star Fort of Jansee, where the officer
commanding, after doing everything that could be done to protect the
unfortunate inmates, just as the mutineers were in the act of bursting
open the gates, well knowing what would be the result should they fall
into the hands of the remorseless natives, with his own hand shot his
wife and child, and then deliberately blew out his own brains. Those who
were captured met a death so horrible and revolting at the hands of and
under the immediate supervision of that incarnate fiend and she devil,
the Rannee of Jansee, the details of which are totally unfit for
publication. Then, and not till then, the magnitude of the danger was
realized.

Mr. Barton, whose health had been on the decline some weeks past, and
whose term of service in India nearly expired, declared that he would no
longer remain in the country, and obtained leave of absence to proceed
to Bombay, in anticipation of finally leaving for Europe. Mrs. Barton,
always nervous, became alarmed for her personal safety, and urged their
immediate departure with much vehemence, and it was arranged that they
should start at once for Rutlaum _en route_ for the sea coast, and that
Miss Effingham should remain and see everything packed up and the
servants sent on, then follow herself and overtake them at Rutlaum,
where they were to make a halt for a few days. Several other families
also left about the same time, for the tide of mutiny and rebellion was
now sweeping like the red pestilence through the whole of the North West
provinces. Mohow, Indore, Meidpoore, Mundasore, Neemuch and other places
of greater or lesser note, had already become the scene of many a bloody
drama and fiendish outrage. In fact, whenever native troops had been
located, ruin and desolation reigned triumphant. Public edifices were
thrown down, Bungalows burned and the Bazaars plundered, while helpless
and unprotected Europeans, irrespective of sex or age, were seized, and
after suffering the most brutal indignities, ruthlessly slaughtered by
the fanatical and blood-thirsty native soldiery.

Goolampore and its immediate vi