I90 PATNA DURING THE MUTINY. 



him thus : "A jury has decided against you. Well ; that verdict is 

 wrong : but still they decided as they thought right, and it is against 

 you." 



Under such circumstances Mr. Tayler's wisest policy would have 

 been to keep quiet, and had he done so, subsequent events, I have 

 little doubt, would have justified his proceedings ; matters would 

 have been smoothed over, and again he would have been deemed 

 fitted for the highest administrative command. 



But unfortunately he could not view the matter in this hght. 

 Thoroughly satisfied that his policy had been right, and considering 

 himself the saviour of Patna, he thought those who differed from 

 him must be wilfully blind and disingenuous ; and even anyone like 

 myself, whose probity he acknowledged to be above suspicion, if he 

 dared to suggest that possibly there might be two opinions in such 

 a cause, did so at the risk of meeting with a reception similar to 

 that of Gil Bias, when he criticised the Archbishop of Granada's 

 homilies. He accordingly proclaimed war to the knife, neither 

 giving nor demanding quarter, and as he had a facile pen and 

 pencil,* he hoped soon to right himself and cover his opponents 

 with obloquy and ridicule. 



" The late Commissioner of Patna has a good deal of Mister 

 John Bull about him," a native gentleman of high rank said to me, 

 " see what thrusts he gives with his sharp horns." But it was like 

 Virgil's bull, which contended with the winds, 



" Arboris obnixtis trunco, ventosque lacessit 

 Ictibus, et sparsa ad pugnam proludit arena J' ^ 



But we must not judge Mr. Tayler too harshly. Had he been 

 six feet high with shoulders in proportion, he might have smiled 

 merely at the charge of panic, and contented himself with punching 

 the head of anyone who dared to repeat the accusation in his 



* H? was a brother of Frederick Tayler, the artist, and according to some, had equal natural talent. 



