Sir Hugh Wheeler could do nothing. He might have retreated with the
whole body of Europeans from Cawnpore to Allahabad; but there had been a
mutiny at Allahabad, and, moreover, he had no means of transport.
Subsequently he heard that the mutineers had reached the first stage on
the road to Delhi, and consequently he saw no ground for alarm.
Meanwhile the brain of Nana Sahib had been turned by wild dreams of
vengeance and sovereignty. He thought not only to wreak his malice upon
the English, but to restore the extinct Mahratta Empire, and reign over
Hindustan as the representative of the forgotten peshwas. The stampede
of the sepoys to Delhi was fatal to his mad ambition. He overtook the
mutineers, dazzled them with fables of the treasures in Wheeler's
intrenchment, and brought them back to Cawnpore to carry out his
vindictive and visionary schemes.
At early morning on Saturday, June 6th, General Wheeler received from
Nana a letter announcing that he was about to attack the intrenchment.
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