employed on the railway, frightened by the symptoms of mutiny around them, and apprehensive for their own safety, had deserted the place in the beginning of June; but Mr. Wake, who remained at the post of danger, induced them by his example to return. He applied everywhere for assistance, but no troops could be spared till the 11th of July, when he received a small detachment of Sikh police from Patna. On the evening of the 25th of July, intelligence reached Arrah that the native regiments at Dinapoor had mutinied, and crossed the river Sone. There was no time to be lost; the fifteen Europeans in Arrah had to decide at once what course they were to pursue: in a few hours the enemy would be upon them. There was not a single soldier in the place; the local police had fled at the first intimation of danger; there was no fort or stronghold where the Europeans could find refuge. No one could have blamed them if they had consulted their safety in flight; but that band of brave civilians scorned the idea, and resolved to remain at their posts. Mr. Boyle, an engineer of the main-trunk railway, was the only one amongst them who had made some preparations to meet this emergency; he had anticipated the danger, and some weeks before had begun to fortify with stones and timber a detached two-storied house, about fifty feet square, which stood in the same compound as his bungalow, and to collect a store of provisions. Mr. Boyle’s preparations for the coming danger had been the source of many a joke to his less thoughtful companions; but their levity gave place to gratitude on the 26th of July, when the mutineers were upon them. The ladies and children had already been sent away; the fifteen civilians who remained shut themselves up in Mr. Boyle’s house, with the fifty Sikhs of Captain Rattray’s police battalion. Their store of provisions was limited; their only weapons were rifles, revolvers, and hogspears; but they had abundance of ammunition, and an indomitable courage, which supplied every deficiency. On the morning of the 27th the mutineers marched into the town, released the four hundred prisoners in the gaol, and seized eighty thousand rupees which they found in the treasury. They then concealed themselves among the trees and buildings near Mr. Boyle’s house, where they kept up a galling fire during the day, and invited the Sikhs to join them; but these brave fellows had the virtue to refuse the bribes which they offered. On the 28th they procured two small cannon, with which they opened fire on the house, which was now riddled with balls; but its brave defenders never dreamed of surrendering. One of the cannon was mounted on the roof of Boyle’s bungalow, so as to enable the mutineers to fire into the house at the distance of sixty yards. “Nothing,” says Mr. Wake, “but the cowardice, ignorance, and want of unanimity of our enemies prevented our fortification from being brought down about our ears.”