of Brahmins, and with the abomination of pork had the Afghans prevailed
upon the Hindoo Sepoys, captured in the Kabul war, to become
Mohammedans.

"Exasperated by the unconcealed contempt of the Brahmins, the Lascars,
with an easily understood rancor, managed to convey the startling
information to their detested superiors that the cartridges they bit in
loading the new rifles were greased with the fat of cows, and that they
were, in consequence, defiled, and their boasted caste supremacy was
destroyed.

"This revelation, so momentous to the Hindoo, found its way first to
Barrackpore by reason of its nearness to Calcutta.

"At once an indescribable panic ensued, and in a marvelously short time
every native regiment in Bengal was confronted with the possibility of
lost caste, and terrified at the consequent belief that the British
Government was making an attempt to Anglicize them with beef as they
had already attempted to do with beer.

"The account of the greased cartridges, embellished as it speeded,
traveled, with the rapidity which usually expedites evil rumor, along
the Ganges and Jumna to Benares, Allahabad, Agra, Delhi and Meerut, and
the British authorities were confronted with a revolt which was to cost
thousands of men and countless treasure.

"As the prince reflected upon the fever of events, and calculated their
possible consequence to himself, the ambition--often napping, seldom in
slumber--which he secretly cherished, awoke to disturbing vividness.

"His allowance was ample; his retinue, all things considered,
impressive; and the Kutub, although in a state of disrepair in certain
portions, was still unmistakably a royal residence. But he was
thoroughly weary of the massive pile, and increasingly exasperated at
the interdict of Delhi.

"Certain salacious possibilities within its walls still made their
insidious appeals to him, and he had not forgotten the ceremonious
deference accorded him in the household of the Moghul.

"At the Kutub he had to contrive his own dissipations and excesses.

"There was no need to be clandestine.

"The very frankness of his privileges discouraged his imagination. There
was no spice of jeopardy in them; no preludes of intrigue.

"To relieve this surfeit, which is the worst of monotonies, eagerly
would the prince have joined the revolting troops, detachments of which
he could perceive from the walls of the Kutub hastening along the
sun-scorched highway to Delhi.