nature.

"None was needed; the prince had preserved several specimens of that
chirography at the bottom of various interesting bills of sale.

"As this bizarre scion of an incredibly ancient regime read this
extraordinary missive, with its exasperating reference to the
restitution of Lal Lu, and considered the prompt realization of the
threatened reprisal which had followed his first failure to comply with
the request of Ram Lal, a sense of fear and futility possessed him.

"With curious apathy, an unaccountable suggestion of impersonality,
almost, he did not pause to consider the absence of the intolerant
passion which his loss should have occasioned, or to wonder at his
bewildered reception of this implication of further dispossession.

"The prince appeared to be moving as in a spell; but as he concluded the
remainder of the missive and remembered, at its inspiration, that he
was, indeed, the grandson of the Moghul and the heir-apparent of this
pageant throne of Delhi, a sensible degree of his customary cynical
assurance returned.

"Hastening to the ante-room, the prince, with alert reanimation,
questioned the stalwart official who stood without.

"He indicated to his master that the missive had been left upon the
outer sill of the threshold leading from the ante-room to the corridor
which opened upon the courtyard.

"Beyond this nothing could be learned; but other and more absorbing
information was conveyed to the prince.

"He learned that several bodies of Sepoys had already passed the palace,
on the highway, in the direction of Delhi.

"Startled at this rapid confirmation of the statement conveyed in the
strange communication which he had just read, the prince rapidly
reviewed the singular cause of the mutiny.

"Great Britain had just supplied the native soldiery with the Enfield
rifle.

"This weapon was rendered formidable by a new cartridge, which, in order
that it might not bind in the barrel bore, was greased in England with
the fat of beef or pork.

"With incredible indifference to the prejudices of the Sepoys, the
military authorities at Calcutta ordered the low-caste Lascars to
prepare the cartridges in a similar manner.

"To this direct invitation disaster was not slow to respond.

"The fat of pigs was sufficient to make a degenerate of a Mohammedan;
and to devour the flesh of cows converted a Hindoo into a Mussulman.

"In this manner had Tippu Sultan enforced the faith of Islam on hordes