ten o'clock
the major asked . `` No , '' answered the colonel ; `` let them be happy for to-night ; they will know the news to-morrow . As they are breaking up , ask all the officers to come round to the messroom ; I will meet them there , and we can talk the matter over ; but let the ladies have one more quiet night ; they will want all their strength and fortitude for what is to come . '' And so , clearing their brows , they went into the house and listened to the music , and joined in the talk until ten o'clock struck and every one got up to go , and so ended the last happy evening at Sandynugghur . The next morning brought the news of the rising at Delhi , but it was not till two days later that letters giving any details of these terrible events arrived , and the full extent of the awful calamity was known . The flame broke out at Meerut at seven o'clock in the evening of Sunday , the 10th of May . On the previous day a punishment parade had been held to witness the military degradation of a number of men of the Third Native Cavalry , who had been guilty of mutinous conduct in respect to the cartridges .