Chapter XII: Proclamation of the Mogul Empire

On the forenoon of Monday, May 11, 1857, the horde of mutineers, fresh from the massacres of the evening before at Meerut, were discerned by the crowds that were swarming on the walls and outlooks of Delhi.

The great city at this time was garrisoned entirely by native troops, consisting of the Thirty Eighth, Fifty Fourth and Seventy Fourth Regiments of infantry, and a battery of artillery. The arsenal within the city contained nearly a million cartridges, ten million muskets, two complete siege trains and a great many field guns. The powder magazine, removed a short time before at the request of the inhabitants, was filled with ten thousand barrels of powder.

The mutineers crossed the suspension bridge over the Hindun torrent, a dozen miles out, and came turbulently toward Delhi, confident of a royal reception from the sepoys stationed there.

When the rebels were observed in the distance, the three native regiments mentioned were paraded in service order--the guns loaded, and Brigadier General Graves, having shown no more conception of the situation than a child, now proceeded to make the sepoys a speech, appealing to them to remain faithful to their colors and to do all they could to repel the mutineers, whose yells fell upon their ears at that moment.

This speech was received with cheers, and the Fifty Fourth especially were furious in their denunciations of the rebels, and they demanded the privilege of being led against them. General Graves and poor Colonel Ripley, commandant of the regiment, were touched almost to tears by the devotion of the Fifty Fourth. The latter officer immediately placed himself at the head of the regiment, and, leaving Major Patterson, the second in command, to follow with two guns, started in the direction of the Cashmere Gate, where it was reported the mutineers were gathering.

The Fifty Fourth moved with the swinging, even step of veterans, and Colonel Ripley's eye kindled as he looked upon the fine figures, who he was confident would stand by him against all machinations and in the face of every danger.

The approaching mutineers from Meerut were now in full view. They were a tumultuous horde, at whose head rode two hundred and fifty troopers of the Third Cavalry, the most fiendish of the Meerut butchers. On the breasts of many of them were medals gained in fighting the battles of England. Their horses were on the gallop, and they swung their swords on high and shouted greeting to the native regiments, drawn up with loaded muskets, awaiting the order to fire upon them.

A short distance behind them were to be seen twelve hundred infantry, all in uniform, though covered with dust, the whole savage horde on a run in their eagerness to reach the gilded minarets of Delhi. Their muskets flashed in the sun, and the crowds who were watching their approach knew only too well what it all signified.

Upon this frightful host the Fifty Fourth Regiment, under the leadership of Colonel Ripley, steadily moved, until but a short distance separated them. All at once the regiment, without orders, halted.

A number of the mutineers were among the soldiers, calling upon them in the name of the faith to join them.

Within less than five minutes from the time this appeal was made, the Fifty Fourth mutinied in a body and withdrew from their officers, who were thus left standing in the middle of the road. Immediately a squad of the cavalry dashed forward and attacked them. Colonel Ripley shot a couple dead with his pistol and then was cut down. None of the other officers had any weapons beside his side arms, and all were killed without the power to offer resistance. The treacherous Fifty Fourth made a pretense of protecting their officers, but fired over the heads of the cavalry, who, having finished their work, sprang from their horses, and affiliated with them.

The mutineers by this time were joined by many stragglers from the other two regiments in cantonment, and the wild horde made a rush for the Cashmere Gate, through which they poured into the city, cutting down all Europeans that were seen.

Meanwhile another portion of the Meerut rebels had crossed the Jumna and taken possession of the causeway on the Delhi side of the river, close to the Calcutta Gate, which was closed against them. Simon Fraser, Commissioner at the Court of Delhi, learning of their arrival, started and reached the palace, but was shot down, while the sepoys on guard threw open the gate and admitted the mutineers.

The sepoys, reinforced by the Ghoojurs, were now rushing into the city from every direction, and the reign of pandemonium began. Plunder, outrage, massacre and death were on every hand.

On that lurid 11th of May, 1857, while the sepoys were swarming into the doomed city, another party ran to the river gate of the emperor's palace, where they opened communication with the adherents of the potentate. After a brief parley he gave orders to admit the troopers.

Hurrying into the audience chamber, they declared that the whole of Hindostan had risen in rebellion and cast off the English yoke; that Calcutta and other leading cities were already in the possession of the native troops, and that it only remained for his Imperial Majesty to unfurl the sacred banner of the Prophet, when the millions of India would rally beneath it and the Mogul Empire, in all its ancient glory, should be re-established to last as long as the sun and stars.

The Emperor of Delhi at that time was four score years of age, wan and thin to emaciation, with a snow white beard, scant hair, lack luster eyes and a frame enfeebled by a lifetime of indolence and indulgence. It would have been thought that within such an aged bosom the fires of ambition had long since died out, and that all he could have desired was peace, rest, and a quiet death.

But the blood tingled in his languid frame, his feeble heart quickened its throbbings, and the flame was kindled anew in the dim eye, as he saw the picture thus held aloft before him.

The Mogul Empire restored!

Back through the dim vista of the centuries to the Moslem invasion, nearly a thousand years before, to that year, 1205, when Cootub, the Afghan conqueror, made Delhi the capital, to 1525, when Baber slew the last Afghan monarch and established the line of Mogul princes, to the consolidation of the empire and its culmination under Aurungzebe; then down the slow but steady dry rot, until the English came a century before and established themselves masters of the mighty empire.

Thoughts of those stupendous epochs and the dream of restoring the splendor, the barbaric pomp, the magnificence and glory of the Mogul Empire, must have stirred the sluggish blood of the wan old puppet until, rapt by the dazzling vision, he consented.

A throne of silver, that had been laid away since the year 1843, was brought into the "hall of special audience," and Mohammed Suraj-oodeen Shah Gezee took his seat upon it as the Great Mogul of India.

Two troops of artillery from Meerut entered the city by the Calcutta Gate and fired a royal salute of twenty one guns in front of the palace. Instantly the multitude became frantic in their exultation, for they felt that now they had a head, a rallying point for the faithful of India, and the days of English rule were numbered.

The ceremony within the palace being ended, the royal procession was formed. Amid the booming of artillery, the blare and clangor of martial music and the shouts of the fanatics, the gates of the palace were thrown open, and Prince Mirza Mogul, one of the sons appointed to the command of the royal army, rode forth, followed by his brother, Prince Abu Beker, at the head of the royal body guard.

Surrounded by the latter, came the king in an open chariot, his great age and feebleness preventing him from riding on horseback or upon an elephant.

Thus attended, he was slowly driven through the principal street, the swarming throngs becoming more frenzied every hour, until the Juma Musjeed was reached. This is the largest mosque in India, and surpassed only by Mecca and St. Sophia.

And here took place that strange, impressive ceremony, which consisted of the unfurling of the banner of the Prophet, and the proclamation of the Mogul Empire.

The commands of his majesty were promulgated to the effect that the shop keepers and inhabitants should resume their vocations, after which he slowly returned to the palace.

Thus amid fire, pillage, and blood, the Mogul Empire was proclaimed.

How long was it to last?