'
"I tried in vain to clear matters up. Your aunt would insist that
I took her to be forty, and the fun that my blunder made rather
drew us together, and gave me a start over the other fellows at
the station, half of whom fell straightway in love with her. Some
months went on, and when the mutiny broke out we were engaged to
be married. It is a proof of how completely the opium dreams had
passed out of the minds of both Simmonds and myself, that even
when rumors of general disaffection among the Sepoys began to be
current, they never once recurred to us; and even when the news
of the actual mutiny reached us we were just as confident as were
the others of the fidelity of our own regiment. It was the old
story, foolish confidence and black treachery. As at very many other
stations, the mutiny broke out when we were at mess. Our regiment
was dining with the 34th Bengalees. Suddenly, just as dinner was
over, the window was opened, and a tremendous fire poured in. Four
or five men fell dead at once, and the poor colonel, who was next
to me, was shot right through the head. Everyone rushed to his sword
and drew his pistol--for we had been ordered to carry pistols as
part of our uniform. I was next to Charley Simmonds as the Sepoys
of both regiments, headed by Subadar Piran, poured in at the windows.
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