[Footnote 13:  In the month of May, 1858, alone, not less than a thousand British soldiers died of sunstroke, fatigue and disease, and about a hundred were killed in action.]

[Footnote 14:  Consisting of the 23rd Fusiliers, 79th Highlanders, and 1st Bengal Fusiliers.]

[Footnote 15:  Captain Wale, a gallant officer who commanded a newly raised corps of Sikh Cavalry, lost his life on this occasion.  He persuaded Campbell to let him follow up the enemy, and was shot dead in a charge.  His men behaved extremely well, and one of them, by name Ganda Sing, saved the life of the late Sir Robert Sandeman, who was a subaltern in the regiment.  The same man, two years later, saved the late Sir Charles Macgregor’s life during the China war, and when I was Commander-in-Chief in India I had the pleasure of appointing him to be my Native Aide-de-Camp.  Granda Sing, who has now the rank of Captain and the title of Sirdar Bahadur, retired last year with a handsome pension and a small grant of land.]

[Footnote 16:  A Mahomedan Priest.]

[Footnote 17:  Now General Cockburn Hood, C.B.]

[Footnote 18:  Now General Sir Samuel Browne, V.C., G.C.B.  This popular and gallant officer, well known to every Native in Upper India as ‘S[=a]m Br[=u]n Sahib,’ and to the officers of the whole of Her Majesty’s army as the inventor of the sword-belt universally adopted on service, distinguished himself greatly in the autumn of 1858.  With 230 sabres of his own regiment and 350 Native Infantry, he attacked a party of rebels who had taken up a position at Nuria, a village at the edge of the Terai, about ten miles from Pilibhit.  Browne managed to get to the rear of the enemy without being discovered; a hand-to-hand fight then ensued, in which he got two severe wounds—­one on the knee, from which he nearly bled to death, the other on the left shoulder, cutting right through the arm.  The enemy were completely routed, and fled, leaving their four guns and 300 dead on the ground.  Browne was deservedly rewarded with the V.C.]

[Footnote 19:  The present 13th Bengal Lancers.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXX.

What brought about the Mutiny?  —­Religious fears of the people—­The land question —­The annexation of Oudh—­Fulfilment of Malcolm’s prophecy —­The Delhi royal family—­The Nana Sahib—­The Native army —­Greased cartridges—­Limited number of British troops —­Objection to foreign service—­Excessive age of the British officers

‘What brought about the Mutiny?’ and ’Is there any chance of a similar rising occurring again?’ are questions which are constantly being put to me; I will now endeavour to answer them, though it is not a very easy task—­for I feel that my book will be rendered more interesting and complete to many if I endeavour to give them some idea of the circumstances which, in my opinion, led to that calamitous crisis in the history of our rule in India, and then try to show how I think a repetition of such a disaster may best be guarded against.