Following the awful explosion was a din of yells, shrieks, execrations and cries of agony. When the great magazine of Delhi went up in flame and smoke, it mangled and killed more than half a thousand sepoys. Lieutenant Willoughby and two companions, scorched, wounded and buried in the ruins, smiled with satisfaction when they realized what a magnificent success the gigantic fireworks had proven to be.
These three men actually succeeded in crawling from the ruins at night and stole through the sally port on the river face. Willoughby was afterward killed in a village near Delhi. Two of the men, Forrest and Buckley, lived to tell of their marvelous escape, but Scully, who fired the train, was blown to fragments with the hundreds of sepoys by the terrific outburst.
When the tempest broke over Delhi, General Graves did what he could for the safety of the Europeans within the city and the vicinity. It was decided that the ladies and persons of civil employment should go to the Flagstaff Tower. This was a strong building of circular shape, standing on an elevation near the cantonment, and only a short distance from the Cashmere and Moree Gates.
At this station was General Graves himself, the eminence affording him a good view of the movements of the mutineers in the city. With him were detachments of the Thirty Eighth and Seventy Fourth Regiments. His situation was trying.
Of the three regiments stationed at Delhi, every member of one—the Fifty Fourth, which went out to fight the mutineers—had joined them and was now engaged in helping to plunder the city. Members of the other two regiments were also there, and the rest were eager to be with them.
When the thunder of the exploding magazine shook the ground, and the sulphurous cloud rose above the city, the sepoys at the Flagstaff Tower became irrestrainable. Catching up their arms with shouts of "Deen! deen!" (the faith! the faith!) they seized two guns and pointed them against the tower. Providentially they yielded to persuasion and gave up the pieces, but by this time it was clear that there was not a safe spot in all Delhi for a European.
The sagacious Luchman saw he had made a grave error. He had thought that the sepoys at the Flagstaff, where they were under the immediate eye of the general, would for a time at least remain loyal. But the whirlwind of revolt swept everything before it.
"It would have been better had we started back into the country at once," said Dr. Avery, while discussing the situation with his friends in the Flagstaff Tower.
"It would have made little difference," replied the missionary, "for we should have encountered the Ghoojurs, who are flocking hither from every direction."
"But Luchman is so well acquainted with the country that he would have steered clear of the robbers."