ship of Futtehpore itself was on the Grand Trunk Road, and is now a railway station about 35 miles from Cawnpore I travelled towards my new home, with my wife and children, in two posting carriages, and as it was getting very hot we moved at night, being drawn by coolies along the smooth road. We constantly passed groups of Sepoys, leave having been purposely given with exceptional freedom. The Magistrate of Cawnpore, Mr. Hillersdon, had asked us to put up with him, and we stayed a day or two in his comfortable bungalow in Nuwab Gunj. Mrs. Hillersdon was an accomplished pianist-a favourite pupil of Ascher-and she delighted us with some charming music, both on her own instrument and on the concertina, which, in her hands, proved itself as satisfactory as it usually is very much the contrary with less skilful players. She was fond of Mendelssohn's Rondo Capriccios, then not hackneyed, and I never hear the piece without recollections of the still interior of the Cawnpore house, its accomplished mistress, her husband, her children, her brother-in-law-Col. Hillersdon-all doomed to speedy and painful destruction. Little did I think, as I sat talking with Hillersdon over friends we had both known at Muttra, that in a month or two I should be his successor, and that four only would be alive of all our countrymen whose duties had collected them at Cawnpore, and of the families that had gathered around them.

When we reached our destination, we found much excitement, but no special knowledge of the state of affairs at Allahabad, further than that the 6th Regiment of Native Infantry was considered shaky. As the treasury guard at Futtehpore, commanded by a Subahdar, was supplied by that regiment, its conduct was of local interest. I relieved

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my predecessor, Mr. Edmonstone, and he went off to Allahabad, and then the circle at the station consisted of four railway engineers engaged in constructing the new line to Cawnpore, viz., Bews, Oswin, Heathcote, and a fourth whose name has escaped me. Then there was Mr. Robert Tucker, the judge, and Elliott Macnaghten, Assistant Magistrate, and Dr. Hutchinson and his wife, and Anderson, opium agent, and his mother, and a salt inspector who was often away in the district, and ourselves.

Our judge was a tall, large-boned man, eccentric in some of his views, but of an exceedingly fine character. He was one of those of whom you felt absolutely certain that in no circumstances of life, however trying, would any unworthy motive ever even cross his mind. He was possessed of much information, and conversed with an easy flow of language, and in a voice of full and pleasant tone, so that it was an enjoyment to listen to him. Though vivacious and social enough, his life was directed by strict principles of what old Isaak Walton called "the primitive piety." In the court, where he sat at the daily task, he had had painted on the wall over his chair a label with these words, "Thou God seest me." At the entry of the town, too, he had got permission to erect pillars by the wayside, on which he had had inscribed, in the vernacular, the Ten Commandments, and sundry religious precepts.

Though there was no immediate cause for apprehension, I received orders not to let the ladies stay in case of threatened danger. The mail-carts seemed to afford a fair test of general security, and as long as they ran regularly both ways, I did not think any action necessary. But at last, one night, there was no mail from the westward. A sowar usually

came up at midnight with the letters, and I was awakened to see if there was any news of importance. On this occasion he waited an hour or two, and then rode up to say the cart had not arrived. My brother-in-law, Forbes, who had been ordered home sick, was staying with us, and his wife and children were with him. I had to give notice in the morning that unless the mail-cart came at noon, there must be a start for Allahabad. Twelve struck, no mail-cart. So the posting carriages were sent for, and the two families, under the protection of Forbes, were sent off. When they reached Allahabad, the road to Calcutta was reported open, and they pushed on; and the last day there was any post from Allahabad, there came a mere scrap of untidy paper with the words "all safe" written on it, and the Calcutta post-mark.

The same day my people left me, I warned the other ladies; and as they were more or less expecting an intimation, their arrangements were complete, and off they went.

As it happened, the mail-cart had only broken down, and at last came in; but affairs were very gloomy, and it was a great relief to know that no one was left but those whose duties required them to stay. All Eurasians connected with the offices decided on such plans for the safety of their families as seemed to them the most suitable. I occupied a large and roomy house, which had been built by my predecessor, and as it seemed most desirable that we should act together in case of emergency, I proposed to all the men that we should make a common home of the only place in the station that would accommodate so large a party.

The news grew worse. English soldiers, by twos and threes, occasionally passed through towards Cawnpore in

conveyances, and these the Kotwal, or head constable of the town, who was really a rebel in the guise of a humourist, called the choontee fouj, or ant-army. One evening three officers called on us on their way westward. One was named Bax, and another was a young fellow just joining, and we made them stay supper. Afterwards a song or two followed, and they left us at midnight, not without "one cheer more," and so departed-to their fate. The railway men tried to work in the mornings, but could not manage much; and though our courts and office were open, yet there was no business. Only the opium-eaters were constant; they came at the stated hour for their supply of the drug. They dwelt in dreamland, and were not interested in the troubles of real life. The sub-officers out in the district reported that crime had ceased altogether.

A Sanscrit poet describes how, in an overwhelmingly hot season, the cobra lay under the peacock's wing, and the frog, again, reclined beneath the hood of the cobra. All antipathies and antagonisms were forgotten. And so, amongst the peasantry around us, there was a general expectation which paralysed all activity. The thief sat down by the door-keeper, and the bad characters sought the shelter of the miser's wall; all were waiting-waiting-they certainly had no idea for what.

We had had the celebrated "chupatties" in our district; but I am almost inclined to think more has been made of them than was their due. The village watchmen received them, and forwarded them, or similar ones, elsewhere, as they were requested to do; but all agree that the watchmen had no definite idea of what was meant. If the transmission of these cakes was only intended to create a mysterious

uneasiness, that object was gained. But if the affair was a signal for united action, it failed altogether, and ended in a bungle, for no united action took place. And it must be remembered that the circulation of chupatties is a superstitious practice not unknown in Central India, resorted to, we are told, in the hope of passing on epidemics.

When I was leaving Agra, the Government Secretary, knowing that I had little or no experience in managing a district, kindly told me of the Mahomedan Deputy-Collector, Hikmut-Oollah, at Futtehpore, and recommended me to lean on him as a man of complete acquaintance with that part of the country, intelligent, tried, and entirely to be trusted. As soon as I arrived, he, of course, came to see me, and I found him tall, but with rather a stooping, invalid figure, of pale, olive complexion, and with reticent eyeseyes, that is, from which he withheld all expression, till he could form some idea of my character. He had the grave, graceful manners of his race; but the impression he produced on my mind was that of a person astute rather than frank, and whose behaviour would be coloured by his opinion of his official superior. Somehow, he reminded me of the Italian secretaries one sees in a picture gallery, with their black velvet doublets and delicate lace collars, and their calm, mask-like faces.

During the ominously tranquil time I have describedtranquil, indeed, only in our immediate neighbourhood, for the administration was breaking down in all directions—the Deputy-Collector hardly ever came near me. When he did, and the conversation turned on the state of the army, he affected to ignore any serious danger from Sepoys without discipline, and alienated from their lawful leaders.

This

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