Nana Sahib was a genuine Mahratta, and would have persisted in forcing his claims from time to time upon the British government if he had lived for a hundred years. He was polite and smooth-tongued, flattering every European of influence that came in his way, and ever boasting of his loyalty to the British government. He professed to take the utmost pleasure in the society of Europeans, and was noted for his entertainments at Bithoor, to which he invited all the European society at Cawnpore. He affected to live in state like a Hindu Raja; he kept six guns for firing salutes, and entertained a large number of Mahratta troops and followers. But he never forgot his claim to the pension. He constantly harped upon the so-called injustice that deprived him of it; and he employed agents both in India and Great Britain to urge the British government to treat the pension as perpetual and hereditary. [Sidenote: Cunning.] When the Bengal sepoys began to express horror at the greased cartridges, Nana Sahib denounced their folly in supposing that the British government had planned the destruction of their religion. When the news arrived of the outbreak at Meerut, he persuaded the civil officials at Cawnpore to send their wives and other ladies to Bithoor until the storm had blown over. He boasted that he could protect them against any number of sepoys, and arrangements were actually made for securing the ladies at Bithoor in the event of a mutiny. Later on, when the revolt at Delhi had become common talk, the Nana proposed to organise a body of 1,500 Mahrattas to take the sepoys by surprise, and put them all to the sword, should they show the slightest symptom of mutiny. [Sidenote: Anxieties of the Europeans.] By this time the anxiety of the Europeans at Cawnpore was becoming intolerable. The ladies especially suffered severely. On any night a signal might be given, and a mob of armed sepoys might be rushing about like madmen, burning down bungalows and murdering the women and children in their beds. All were yearning for the recapture of Delhi. Indeed, every European in India felt that the plague of sepoy mutiny would never be stayed until Delhi was once again in the hands of the British government. [Sidenote: Expected mutiny, 21st May.]