302 A Sportswoman in India 



repeated British annexation of native states, also by 

 the spread of education, and by the appearance of the 

 steam-engine and telegraph wires. The Bengal Sepoys 

 especially, all of them men of high caste, thought they 

 could see into the future further than the rest of their 

 countrymen, and they dreaded what they put down 

 as denationalising. The influence of panic in an 

 Oriental population is greater than might be supposed ; 

 it spreads like fire. Natives readily believe the wildest 

 stories, and act upon their fears. 



The numerous dethroned princes, their heirs, and 

 their widows, systematic and intriguing wire-pullers, 

 with everything to gain by a revolution, having money 

 in abundance with which they could buy the assistance 

 of skilful spies and plotters, took advantage of any 

 spirit of disaffection. In this critical state of affairs, 

 of which the Government had no official knowledge, 

 a rumour was circulated through the cantonments of 

 the Bengal army that cartridges had been served out 

 greased with the fat of animals unclean alike to Hindu 

 and Mohammedan. 



After this nothing could quiet the minds of the 

 Sepoys ; officers were insulted by their men, and all 

 confidence was gone. The storm burst. 



As we drove up to Delhi its great wall of solid 

 stone confronted us, constructed more than two 

 hundred years ago by Shah Jehan, and subsequently 

 strengthened by the English at the beginning of the 

 present century by a ditch and glacis. Those im- 

 provements cost us dear. 



