The evening was well advanced, when General Graves approached the group.
"It is all over," he said with a sigh and shake of the head.
Luchman continued gazing toward Delhi. He glanced at the officer, but said nothing. Evidently he felt little respect for the leader who had shown such inefficiency, and therefore did not deign to notice his remark.
Dr. Avery, now that all military rule was at an end, was tempted to reproach the general for his blindness to the peril until it was too late, but he checked such feeling, conscious of the cruelty of giving it expression.
"What do you mean, general, by its being all over?"
"I doubt whether there is a living European in Delhi at this moment; or if there is, he will not escape an hour longer."
"But what about the sepoys around you?"
"They are on the verge of revolt."
"And are we left alone?" asked Marian with a gasp of dismay.
"It amounts to that, since even if those that are left should stand by us, they cannot resist the force that will soon attack them. They have opened the jails and turned the convicts loose. The Mussulmans are hunting everywhere for victims; and, friends," added the commandant with great impressiveness, "it becomes my duty to say that I have no longer any power to help you. Each one must look out for himself."