midnight
In reality , this rollicking native gentleman was a human tiger . On the very night that the men of the Thirty-second came in from Oude , there was an alarm of a rising , and the ladies and children of the station took refuge in the fortified post prepared for them ; and from that time the sufferings of the residents commenced , although it was not for a fortnight afterward that the mutiny took place ; for the overcrowding and the intense heat at once began to affect the health of those huddled together in ill-ventilated rooms , and deprived of all the luxuries which alone make existence endurable to white people in Indian cities on the plains during the heats of summer . Scarce a day passed without news of risings at other stations taking place , and with the receipt of each item of intelligence the insolence displayed by the Sepoys increased . A few English troops arrived from Allahabad and at midnight upon the 4th of June , when the natives broke into revolt , there were in the intrenchments of Cawnpore eighty-three officers of various regiments , sixty men of the Eighty-fourth Regiment , and seventy of the Thirty-second , fifteen of the First Madras Fusiliers , and a few invalid gunners ; the whole defensive force consisting of about two hundred and forty men , and six guns . There were under their charge a large number of ladies and children , the wives and families of the officers and civilians at the station , sixty-four women and seventy-six children belonging to the soldiers , with a few native servants who remained faithful . The total number of women , children , and non-effectives amounted to about eight hundred and seventy persons . During the night of the 4th of June the whole of the native troops rose , set fire to all the European residences outside the intrenchments , and marched to Nawabgunge , a place four miles away .