h, rushed into
the house, searched every nook and corner far what they so much wished
to find, smashing and destroying everything that came in their way, but
they were doomed to disappointment. A bullet from one of their holster
pistols blew the lock from the door of the closet, and the poor mother
and her helpless babes were seized and dragged forth by these monsters
in human form. The mother was brutally outraged, and her clothing torn
and stripped from her person. A large empty chest, which usually
contained clothing, caught the attention of one of the number, and a
fiendish thought flashed through his mind, which he communicated to some
of the others, and they proceeded to carry it out. Collecting the broken
furniture, bed linen, etc., they made a large fire and placed the box in
question thereon; then tossed the helpless children into it and
literally roasted them alive in the presence of the agonized mother, who
made frantic attempts to break from her captors, and rescue her
offspring, but it was in vain; they held her firmly until the chest and
its contents were reduced to embers; then two of them plunged their
creeses into her naked bosom, and flung her bleeding body into the fire
to be consumed like those of her children. Other enormities were being
enacted in various parts of Goolampore during the short time the
mutineers remained there. But an act of unparalleled atrocity was
perpetuated on the Postmaster and his wife, who, it appears, had, on the
morning in question, gone to look at their new Bungalow which was in
course of erection in the suburbs, when they were pounced upon by a body
of Sepoys, who were making good their exodus from the station, having no
desire to come in contact with the horse artillery, the booming of whose
guns sounded not at all pleasantly in their ears. These inhuman wretches
dashed at their victims and, after tormenting them almost to madness by
their devilish cruelties, dragged them to a sawpit, where pieces of
square timber, which had been partially cut into planks for building
purposes, lay. The unhappy pair were then bound on two separate planks,
then another plank was placed on the top of each, and tightly bound
together with strips of fine bamboo; the monsters laughing and
gesticulating at what they termed the living sandwiches, dainty morsels
to be offered up as a sacrifice to their Deities. The crowning act of
this fearful drama was at last enacted by the remorseless villains: