§3. Colonel Neill spent some days in driving the mutineers from the neighbourhood of Benares, and then went on to Allahabad. On his arrival he found the city in a state of insurrection and uproar, whilst the Europeans were shut up in the fortress, and besieged by mutineers and rebels. The city of Allahabad was situated, as already described, at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna, in the centre of Northern India, and about half-way between Calcutta and Delhi. It is the strongest fortress between Calcutta and Agra. It commands the whole river communication between Bengal, Oudh, and the North-West Provinces. It also commanded the old trunk road between Calcutta and Delhi. In the treasury there was £200,000 in silver. Yet, when the mutinies broke out in May, the station and fortress were garrisoned entirely by Asiatics, namely, one Bengal regiment, half a Sikh regiment, and a battery of sepoy artillery. There were no European soldiers whatever at Allahabad, except the British officers in command of the sepoys. [Sidenote: Misplaced confidence.] The colonel and officers of the Bengal sepoys had the most perfect confidence in their men. They had always encouraged the sepoys in their sports, and contributed toward the expenses. It was rumoured in the newspapers that the sepoy regiment was disaffected, but the colonel published an unqualified denial, and declared that the rumour was false and malicious. The British residents at Allahabad were, however, by no means satisfied with this denial. They were alarmed at the reports which reached them of mutiny and murder elsewhere, and after the revolt at Delhi, they complained that they were not sufficiently protected. But no European soldiers were available, not even to garrison the important fortress. Accordingly the British authorities tried to allay the public fears by ordering up sixty-five European invalids from Chunar. Thus the European garrison of the great fortress at Allahabad, which commanded all communications between Bengal and the North-West, consisted for a while of sixty-five invalids. Eventually 100 European non-combatants formed themselves into a volunteer company, and helped to garrison the place. Meanwhile, every batch of European soldiers that arrived from Bengal was at once sent 120 miles further up the river Ganges to the city of Cawnpore, the frontier station towards Oudh. [Sidenote: Treachery.] Allahabad was tranquil. In spite of the outbreak at Meerut, the revolt at Delhi, and the reports of mutinies at other stations, all fear of danger seemed to have passed away. On the 1st of June, the suspected Bengal regiment volunteered to join the besieging force at Delhi. This movement was at once accepted as a certain proof of the loyalty and fidelity of the sepoys. The thanks of Lord Canning were sent by telegraph to the officers and men, and news arrived at the same time that the sepoys had mutinied at Benares, and were in full march to Allahabad _en route_ for Delhi.