308 A Sportswoman in India 



It was at the time of the Mutiny the largest magazine 

 in the north-west of India, and enormous accumu- 

 lations of munitions of war were stored up there. 

 It was under the charge of Lieutenant Willoughby, 

 with whom were two other officers and six non- 

 commissioned officers. The Meerut mutineers arrived 

 at Delhi early in the morning of May nth; and 

 the magazine was defended to the last by the little 

 band, who could hardly believe that succour from our 

 strong European garrison at Meerut was not already 

 upon its way. With what bitter anxiety they must 

 have watched the long white road ! . . . Further defence 

 being useless, and faithful to the last, however faithlessly 

 headquarters treated them, they fired the magazine. 

 Five of the nine were killed by the explosion, and 

 Lieutenant Willoughby died of his injuries ; the 

 remaining three succeeded in making their escape. 



Delhi is full of such memories as these. " We 

 won India by force, and we must ever be prepared 

 to keep it by this stern yet unavoidable luxury " an 

 expensive luxury, Clive might have added. 



A great part of the city is taken up now by a 

 large open space, laid out and planted, known as 

 the Queen's Gardens, where carriages can drive ; but 

 in the days of the Mutiny, from wall to wall Delhi 

 was a seething, murmuring hive of over a hundred 

 and fifty-two thousand Mohammedans and Hindus ; 

 the narrow, tortuous streets, ending often in culs de 

 sac^ and the busy bazaars, swarmed with this vast 

 black population. 



