The Star of India

by Edward Sylvester Ellis

While the missionary, Mr. Hildreth, and his friends kept close watch within their home through the entire day, they knew of the wild excitement in other parts of the city, but they had no suspicion of the proclamation of the Mogul Empire. Luchman knew all about it, but he kept the tidings to himself, through his wish to avoid causing his friends too much alarm.

Luchman was in hourly expectation of an assault by the mob, and his anxiety was none the less terrible because he repressed all signs of it. Why the home of the missionary was not attacked can hardly be explained. The native as well as the good man himself attributed it to fervent prayer, but there were others who prayed just as fervently, and they were cut down like lambs at the slaughter.

It was not until the fugitives reached the Cashmere Gate on Monday evening that they learned of the proclamation of the Mogul Empire, and the fact that plunder and massacre had been going on ever since midday.

The first person killed in Delhi was a Mr. Todd. He was shot while standing on the bridge of boats over the Jumna, by the first mutineers that arrived from Meerut. The second victim was Captain Douglas, commandant of the guard of the titular King. The next persons slain were the Reverend Mr. Jennings, the English chaplain of the residency, and his daughter, a lady of nineteen. They and some others applied to the Emperor for protection, and he gave them to the soldiers.

Meanwhile the Ghoojurs, the hyenas of East Indian society, were swarming into the city. Nearly every house in which a European was known to have lived was gutted: the purpose of the soldiers was massacre,—that of the rabble, plunder. The budmashes and rioters broke into the dwellings of the wealthy natives and the public stables. Scores of shopkeepers in the bazars were killed for the crime of asking payment for their goods.

Suddenly one of the infuriate mobs made for the Delhi Bank, in quest of the treasure deposited there. The throats of Mr. Beresford, the manager, his wife, and five children, were cut. The government treasuries were then plundered, the church burned, and the rioters attacked the office of the Delhi Gazette. When the compositors saw them coming they hastily disguised themselves as natives and mingled with the crowd. They were recognized, however, and hewn in pieces. The presses of the paper were thrown into the river, and the type melted into slugs.

A fearful fate awaited every European who stayed in Delhi. Men, women and children, to the number of several hundred, fell victims to the ferocity of a mob whose fiendishness has never been equaled except by Geronimo and his brother chiefs and Apache braves, or a Paris commune. Delhi was a fitting precursor of the Cawnpore and Lucknow atrocities.

Sir Theophilus Metcalf, the political agent, and Lieutenant Willoughby gave their attention to the magazine, which, as has been stated, contained an enormous amount of ammunition and military stores. The gates were closed and barricaded, two six pounders, double charged with grape, were pointed so as to command the gates in case they should be carried, while other guns, also double charged, covered the different portions of the magazine. A train was then laid connecting with the interior, arms were distributed to the native servants of the establishment, and the garrison, consisting of nine Europeans, calmly awaited the attack that was sure to come.

By and by the palace guard rushed up and demanded the surrender of the magazine, in the name of the Emperor. No answer was given, and ladders were brought from the palace for the purpose of taking the arsenal by escalade.

The mutineers swarmed upon the walls like bees, and the garrison tumbled them off as fast as they could load and fire. During the confusion, the native servants of the magazine and ordnance departments scrambled to the sheds and buildings against the outer wall, and, hurrying down the ladder, affiliated with their fierce countrymen.