Excerpt from Love Besieged: A Romance of the Defense of LucknowMore than half-a-century has passed since the Mutiny of 1857 shook the structure of our supremacy in India to its very foundations. The causes of the disaffection, the identity of the actual leaders, the methods of organisation, are as mysterious now as they were then. Time has done little to add to our knowledge of the native of India. He moves slowly and silently, he goes about his avocation apparently contented, he pays his taxes, and probably grumbles less than the average Englishman. So long as all is quiet, his rulers do not trouble, they are satisfied everything is well if nothing is seen. But the Eastern nature never changes. It is as it has ever been, subtle, secret, patient. No one at the time of the Mutiny was able to penetrate below the surface. The episode of the greased cartridges was but the spark which ignited the fuse. The fuse itself was invisible, the hands that laid it unknown."Unrest in India" - the words might almost be stereotyped. From time to time a mist of doubt has arisen, has floated across the horizon, has melted away.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.