Mutiny Memories.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 June 1910, Page 4

Mutiny Memories.

NEW LIGHTS ON THE GREAT

FIGHT IN INDIA

The story of the Indian Mutiny like that of Waterloo, will never grow stale, seeing /that it is uiit once the darkest and. most dazzling episode in all our military annnlis, and it were liiml to say whether the relief of Lueknow or the siege and capture of Delhi was tho most thrilling laot in tho terrible Ifcra-ged'y. The Delhi portion of the drama bas been described 'by many eye wi'tueases, .hut .a high rank among that mass of fii'st-liand evidence will be taken, by a Ibook \vli<ic*Ji comes from •Mr John Murrayj "A Narrative of the Sioge of Delhi, Avith an Account of the iMutiny at Ferozeppbre, in 1857," by Captain C. J. Griffiths, edited .by Captain 11. J. Yon go. Captain Griffiths went through the greater part of the siege with the old Glrit Regiment (now the. 2nd Gloucesters), after helpimg to suppress tho rising iit Ferozepore. It was here that a dozen niutiineeris and' murderers of women were blown from the months of our guns. We do not remember to have seem this ghiistly executioni described in <lota.il by ainy previous writer, and even at this distance of time the more account is enough to make Itho flesh creep:— "The artillerymen had neglected putting up hjieklxwirds ito theii giMis, so that, horrible to relate, at each discharge the recoil throw lwiok pieces of buruling flesh, boppatterino; the men, and coverin-" (them with iblood and calcined remlaiins." BUTCHERER! Referring to the bulfcchoring oif some Fiiiiglish ladies and children at Delhi, Captain Griffiths says:— "From what I gathered'after the siege from some Delhi natives, it was reported that ladies were stripped naked nit the palace, tied in that condition to the wheels erf gun carriages, dragged up the main street (vf Delhi, and there, in Ithe presence of the King's sons, cut to pieces." After the ca.ptlire of the cilty the avenger of these ladies came down upon these'barbarously cruel pr.inces "like, a wolf on the fold," in the person of the famous Hodson, of Hodson'£ Hlorse. "Whose orders were precise as to the fate of these blood-thirsty ruffians. .... Three princes were placed in a 'gharee, , or nialtivo carriage, and, guarded! by Hodson , s native troopers, were conducted towards the city. Before they entered the carriage was stopped, and Hodson, spoke to his men of the primes committed by tho prisoners. Then, dismounting from his horse, and opening fthe d;'oo|r of the 'ghinree,' he fired two shorts filom a Colt's revolver into each of their hearts. .. . Then, om the very spot where our countrymen and women had suffered death, the three bodies were stripped save a rag round their loins, anr) laid naked on the stone slabs 'otiJtside the build'ing where they remained exposed for three days, and were then buried in dishonoured graves." FIGHTING FIENDS. The knowledge of all (the hellish barbarities perpetrated upon out women and chiild'ren had converted our soldiers besieging Delhi into fighting fiends, whose hearts were steeled against giving the leas): quarter:— "The party I was with in the great caravanserai ranged (the place like dein'ons, the English soldiers /putting to death every Sepoy they could fund. Their aspect was ceittaiuly inhuman—eyes flashing with passion and revenge, faces wot and blackened .from powder through biting cartridges; it would have been useless to attempt to check them in their work of slaughter. . . in short one of itlie most cruel and vindictive wars the world has ever seen."

And when at last tlie besiegers— on the third anniversary of the Almn — had battered and l bayone.tte<l theii way into the doomed city, berating d<n\-n all opposition, how diid they behave ?— , "There is no more terrible spectacle than a oity iby storm. All tho pent-up passions 'of men are hero let loose withomt restra-iiJt, roused to a pitdb of fury from long fontinued resistance, and eager tctake veiigennco on the murderers of wounon nnd oliiklren, no -mercy. nnv ihc d'nrk days of Batla.fos and: San Selinst.ia,n were renewed on a small scale -a,t Delhi. . ~ Strong drink is now Mid in all ae;e,s has been the 'liane of ithe- Emsdisb soldier. . . ."

But Captain Griffiths might, per'ndveniitre. bare drawn a veil ovei tlio way in which th'ose war-worn fHrWrs broke into the dirin'k »toiw r>\ DH'lw m ronsidoi'atinn lof t,lie trulv lißi-oic manner in wbiV'li tbev b.nd so lmic; besieged', and then, fit ladt. 'burflt.Miito iit n.s avoneers—if niot perhnps, of the angolic kind.