eight in the morning
Even then an orderly sent off with dispatches to the officer commanding at Delhi , informing him of what had happened , and bidding him beware , might have saved the lives of hundreds of Englishmen and women , even if it were too late to save Delhi ; but nothing whatever was done ; the English troops made a few meaningless and uncertain movements , and marched back to their barracks . No one came forward to take the lead . So the white troops of Meerut remained stationary under arms all night , and the English population of Delhi were left to their fate . From Meerut to Delhi is thirty-two miles , and the mutineers of Meerut , marching all night , arrived near the town at eight in the morning . Singularly enough , the ancient capital of India , the place around which the aspiration of Hindoos and Mohammedans alike centered , and where the ex-emperor and his family still resided , was left entirely to the guard of native troops ; not a single British regiment was there , not a battery of white troops . As the center of the province , a large white population were gathered there-the families of the officers of the native infantry and artillery , of the civil officers of the province , merchants , bankers , missionaries , and others . As at all other Indian towns , the great bulk of the white inhabitants lived in the cantonments outside the town ; had it not been for this , not one would have escaped the slaughter that commenced as soon as the Third Cavalry from Meerut rode into the town .