attacked. One assault was made, from which both French and English were driven back. Then came another. The English attack failed, the French was successful. Sebastopol was taken. Through the next winter the English army increased in numbers and improved in discipline. But there was no more fighting. The Emperor Nicholas had died in the hard winter which did so much harm to the English and French armies. Now that Sebastopol had been taken, his successor, Alexander II., was ready to make peace. In the spring of 1856 peace was made. The fortifications of Sebastopol were destroyed, and Russia obliged to promise not to have a fleet in the Black Sea. The chief object of the war had been to show Russia that she must not settle the affairs of the lands governed by the Sultan in her own way, and this had been gained. There was, however, a belief in England that the Turkish Government would improve, and govern those countries better. This was, however, a mistake. The Sultan and his ministers did not improve, or learn how to govern, and after a few years there were fresh troubles in Turkey.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

THE INDIAN MUTINY.

(1857, 1858.)

1. Troubles in India. In the year after the Crimean War was ended the attention of men was fixed on a country still farther to the East than Turkey. In 1857 exactly a hundred years had passed since Clive had won the battle of Plassey. The religion of the Hindoos, who form a great part of the natives of India, teaches many things which seem very strange to Englishmen. Among other things they are taught that they will be defiled if they eat any part of a cow. By this defilement they will meet with much contempt from their fellows, and will suffer much after their death in another world. The bulk of the army in India was composed of Hindoos, and it happened that an improved rifle had lately been invented for the use of the soldiers, and that the cartridges used in this rifle required to be greased, in order that they might be rammed down easily into the barrel. The men believed that the grease used was made of the fat of cows, though this was not really the case. There was, therefore, much suspicion and angry feeling among the native soldiers, and when ignorant men are suspicious and angry they are apt to break out into deeds of unreasoning fury. The danger was the greater because a great many of the native princes were also

discontented. These princes governed states scattered about over India, though they were not allowed to make war with one another. Many of them had governed very badly, had ruined their subjects by hard taxation, and had spent the money they thus obtained in vicious and riotous living. The English Government in India had interfered with some of these, and had dethroned them, annexing their territories to its own, and ruling the people who had been their subjects by means of its own officers. The consequence was that some of the princes who had been left in possession of authority thought that their turn would come next, and that they too would be dethroned before long. These men were therefore ready to help against the English, if they thought that they had a chance of succeeding.

2. The Outbreak of the Mutiny. The place at which the soldiers broke out into open mutiny was Meerut. They fired at their English officers, killed some of them, and massacred such Englishmen as they could meet with. Then they made off for Delhi. At Delhi lived an old man whose ancestors had been the chiefs of the Mohammedans who had once conquered India, and who had successively ruled India under the title of the Great Mogul. Their descendant was without power and authority, but he was allowed to live in state, in a magnificent palace, and had a large allowance of money, to support him in every luxury. The mutineers placed him at their head, and called him the Emperor of India. Happily the Governor-General of India was

Lord Canning, George Canning's son. He knew how to oppose the mutineers, and he sent for a large body of English troops which happened to be on its way to China. Till they came he must look to India itself for help. In the north-west of India lay the Punjab, a province recently conquered, and the best English troops were there. The Punjab was governed by Sir John Lawrence, one of the best and wisest of the English statesmen in India. He at once disarmed the Sepoys in the Punjab. Then he sent forth an army to besiege Delhi. That army was not composed of British troops only. The Sikhs, or natives of the Punjab, were a fierce, warlike race. Not many years before they had fought hard for independence. Now they were reconciled to British rule through the wise government of Lawrence and those who served under him. They despised the natives of the plains on the banks of the Ganges, and they were eager to serve against the mutineers. They formed a great part of the army which Lawrence despatched to the siege of Delhi. But though the Sikhs and the English alike fought well, Delhi was a large city, and it was long before it could be taken.

3. Cawnpore. The mutiny spread to Lucknow. Lucknow was the capital of Oudh, which had lately been annexed to the British dominions. The few Englishmen who were in the town were driven into an inclosed house and grounds known as the Residency, with their wives and children. There they held out against the raging multitude outside till help might come. Worse things than this happened at Cawnpore. There were there about a

thousand British men, women, and children. The old commander, Sir Hugh Wheeler, thought that he might trust a native named Nana Sahib, who lived near, as Nana Sahib had been particularly friendly to him. He did not know that Nana Sahib hated the whole British race, because the English Government had refused to acknowledge his right to an inheritance to which he laid claim. Wheeler retired into a hospital round which was a low mud wall. He had with him more than five hundred women and children and less than five hundred men. Nana Sahib arrived, but he came not to help Wheeler, but to put himself at the head of the mutineers. The mutineers again and again made a rush at the low mud wall. Again and again they were beaten off, but swarms of them were firing all day, and many of the defenders fell under their bullets. The poor women and children had to crouch for shelter under the wall, with no roof over their heads to guard them from the scorching rays of the Indian sun. There was but one well from which water could be drawn, and those who went to draw water there did it at the peril of their lives. The mutineers took care to direct their bullets upon it, and many a man dropped slain or wounded as he strove to fetch a little water to cool the parched mouths of wife or child. At last Nana Sahib, finding that he could not get in by force, offered to let the garrison go safely away if the hospital were surrendered. The offer was accepted, and all who still lived were taken down to the river and placed on board large boats, to float down the stream. The