Then followed a pause. The European officers held on in sheer desperation; they hoped to be reinforced by British soldiers from Meerut. The sepoys hesitated for a while, lest they should be cut to pieces by the Europeans, whom they too expected to arrive. Could the Europeans have appeared in time, Delhi might have been saved in spite of the suspicious firing in the air. [Sidenote: Treachery.] Useless firing was a treachery that was new to sepoy regiments commanded by British officers, but it was common enough in Asiatic armies commanded by their own generals or princes. Mogul history abounds in stories of Asiatic officers corrupted by gold, and ordering their troops to fire on an enemy without bullet or ball. Such treachery was scarcely possible under European officers, and consequently the rebel sepoys loaded their muskets with cartridges, and then fired into the air. [Sidenote: Rebels in the palace.] It was soon evident that the king was making common cause with the rebels, for the sepoys from Meerut were pouring through the palace to join their comrades in the city. No Europeans arrived from Meerut, and the Delhi sepoys began to fraternise with the rebels. [Sidenote: British refuge.] Brigadier Graves rallied a few of his men who still remained faithful, and escaped to Flagstaff Tower. Here he found a large number of European ladies and children, and all the gentlemen who had been able to reach the place of refuge. A company of sepoys, and two guns served by sepoy gunners, still guarded the Tower, and had they remained faithful might have kept off the enemy. But the force on the Ridge was rapidly melting away. The hearts of all the sepoys were with the rebels. All were burning to join the scoundrels in the city in the work of plunder and destruction; and those who were posted at the Tower only waited for an opportunity to move off in the same direction. [Sidenote: Massacre of Europeans.]