with Dost Mahomed at Kabul; and the lives of the gallant Lumsden and his party seemed hanging upon a straw. From Delhi to Calcutta lay a clear field for mutiny and insurrection. The sepoy army had become intoxicated with their sense of power. Every heart prayed, though few dared hope, for the Christians scattered over that boundless area. Every one anticipated the enormities that might occur. The silence which followed from the abrupt stoppage of electric telegraph communication, was even more oppressive than the after budgets of dismal tidings, and added to the gloomy forebodings. The vagueness, the immensity, the closeness of the peril, exaggerated alarm. Such were the feelings at Lahore. The actual incidents of those days are generally familiar in the dread outline. Had all Hindoostan been lapped in repose, as in England was fondly hoped, these incidents in the land of the five rivers would have marked an era in a century. In the presence of Hindoostan convulsed, and anarchy raging, the calamities of the Punjab, though individually terrible, its trials though almost preterhuman, seem absolutely dwarfed. Looking around brought scanty solace. The people of the Punjab are composed of what were once the most chivalrous, the fiercest, and the most inveterate of our enemies. What impression even, supposing no previous concert, would passing events create in their minds? The old Sikh nobility were rapidly, though gently, sinking into decay; and though cadets of families, once pillars of Runjeet's throne, survived (hereditary mementos of times almost traditionary, so swift had been the obliteration) there were still some few of influence, wealth, and note remaining. What attitude would they assume? What, in short, was the extent, the core, the nature of the crisis? Was there or was there not a general concert of all peoples, tribes, religions, and dialects for the expulsion of the British? Were the fortythree independent potentates all linked in the hideous confederacy? Was it a national and continental rebellion ? Was an angry and suffering people struggling for liberty? The predicament was one in which the greatest boldness was the greatest prudence. The time for action, not inquiry, had come. There was a violent public and political reaction to apprehend, a certain failure of revenue to contend against, a commercial paralysis to avert, mutiny at home to look to, a future famine in Hindoostan almost inevitable, reinforcements before Delhi to be provided. All communication with Calcutta had been totally and completely cut off. The following pages will show how just was the confidence placed in the loyalty and honour of the chieftains of Puttiala, of Jheend, and of Bikaneer. The aim with which they have been written is to depict how the Punjab Government, fortified by the moral and physical support of its noble and loyal allies, and assured of the attachment of its people, embarked on a series of operations based on one broad grand line of policy; which, whether for the almost desperate nerve that maintained it through four toiling months, or the success which triumphantly crowned it, must for ever remain to the world a monument of wisdom and self-denying heroism: but that wisdom and that heroism are still but mere dross before the manifest and wondrous interposition of Almighty God in the cause of Christianity. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Disarming N. I. Regiment at Meean Meer-Mode adopted- CHAPTER II. - Measures adopted at Lahore and Umritsur-Circular of Mr. 1 20 Importance of the locality-Mutiny of the the 55th N. I. at CHAPTER IV. Outbreak of the troops at Jullundur-Gallantry of individual CHAPTER V. Symptoms at Jhelum-Removal of the 39th N. I.—Agitation PAGE 57 80 |