while at the same time the artillery (quietly loading
as they moved, unobserved by the sepoys), and her
Majesty's 81st, about three hundred altogether,
formed line facing the native regiments. A ringing
rattle at the same time announced that the Queen's
corps had also loaded. Nothing could be more
soldierly than their tramp more menacing than
their front.
For the benefit of the unmilitary reader, a sup-
plementary sketch is now offered, and his imagi-
nation may conceive the countenances of the sepoys
when they received the order to pile arms. The
artillery port-fires were also lighted, and the guns
ready to belch forth grape into every regiment.
SECOND FORMATION.
Sth Cavalry.
H. E. I. C:s Artillery ttttttttttttt
H.M:s 8lst Regiment.
6 THE SEPOYS DISCOMFITED.
Hesitation was useless. The sepoys confronted
immediate death : in which, by the way, the officers
would have been sacrificed. Some say their
demeanour varied, and that the 16th Grenadiers
made a clutch at their arms when they appre-
ciated their utter discomfiture. Be this as it
may, the regiments, shorn of their arms, marched
back ; the bands playing and colours flying. A
company of her Majesty's 81st fell out, in ordinary
course ; and with the cool complacency of the
European who summed up the whole crisis with
the question to his commanding officer " I suppose,
sir, it 's them niggers again," they, in an orderly
and business-like way, packed the weapons of the
dishonoured soldiery in carts, and escorted them to
barracks.
This refreshing spectacle thus concluded ; and it
was the first of the sort. Simple as was the affair,
common-place apparently as was the manosuvre, the
transaction of that morning hour was the turning
point in the destiny of the Punjab. The Asiatic
mind, " unstable as water," had been dealt with in
the mode that has ever insured success. The
" initiative " had been taken, and the tables turned
on him: trumps were led while he was finessing.
Some 3,500 men, with treachery and rebellion at
INTEKCEPTED CORRESPONDENCE. 7
their hearts, their plans concerted, but their aim
uncertain, quietly laid down their arms in the
presence of a dozen guns and three hundred rank
and file of H.M.'s 81st Regiment. It was, in a
military point of view, a simple, peaceful, and,
politically speaking, a fateful piece of business.
All honour to those who carried out the opera-
tion.
The momentous value of the step was not long
coming to light Expresses had been despatched to
all stations announcing the measures. Tremblers
stood aghast at its boldness; some military men
questioned the sanity of the originators; but ere
three days were over all admitted the foresight and
wisdom displayed. No man now looked into the
countenance of a sepoy without scanning it. The
non-observance of ordinary salutation began to be
noticed. The mist gradually fell from before men's
eyes.
God put it into the hearts of our rulers to act
with such energy and resolution. It came to their
knowledge, from intercepted correspondence, that the
whole mine of revolt had been laid with deep and
wary cunning. On the very morning of the 13th,
the fort at Lahore was to have been relieved. The
relief on its arrival would have doubled the ordinary
8 MUTINY OF THE 45TH X. I.
strength of the native garrison; making it about
1,000 or, 1,200 men. The scheme they had in
contemplation -was to rush upon and overcome
the small party of Europeans; seize the fort, the
extensive magazines, the armoury, the vast treasure ;
whilst the remaining regiments were to rise and
massacre all the Europeans of Meean Meer and
Anarkullee, and release the prisoners incarcerated
in the central gaol, some two thousand in number !
!^That the capital was saved is due (under God)
to the promptitude of the measures adopted ; and
events at Ferozepore six hours after, vindicated the
wisdom of the acts of Government.
The coup de grace had scarcely been given at
Lahore, when, on the same day, the 45th N. I.,
which had served at Moodkee, Ferozshuhur,
Punjab, Chillianwalla, and Goojerat, showed their
true colours.
A deep-set plot must have been laid between the
regiments of Meean Meer and Ferozepore. At this
latter place the magazine contained enormous
military stores ; and had these gone, the British flag
would not now have been waving over the walls of
Delhi. Brigadier Innes was fully aware of the
immense value of the arsenal. Notwithstanding the
confidence professed, perhaps naturally, by officers
THE MUTINEERS REPULSED. 9
commanding the N. L corps, a haughty manner
was evident among the native soldiery on the parade
of the morning of the 13th. CaBsar*s wife, as usual,
was to be above 'suspicion, and from this reasoning
it was " hoped " the 45th and 57th N. L would be
found " satisfactory. 5 *
Again the initiative was adopted ; though perhaps
hardly to a sufficient extent. On receipt of the Delhi
news the native troops were quietly moved out of
cantonments, and the entrenchments occupied by
a detachment of H.M.'s 61st under Major Redmond.
Twelve guns also proceeded thither. The 45th
at once broke out into open mutiny; and, filled
with the hope of yet carrying out the design in
which they now felt they had been frustrated, they
rushed with escalading ladders to the entrenchments.
These ladders must have been provided by them
long before. Major Redmond's company repulsed
the whole regiment; unfortunately he was badly
wounded. The magazine was saved; but the 45th
roamed f about in bodies, and burned some ten
or sixteen buildings, including the church and
the Roman Catholic chapeL H. M/s 61st lost
the messhouse and all their property. Again
and 'again fruitless attempts were made on the
entrenchments by the mutineers. To ensure safety,
10 THE 57TH N. L DISARMED.
the magazines of the N. I. regiments had been
blown up.
Foiled in their concerted plan, when disunited, the
45th, like the unstrung bundle of faggots, became
separately frangible. Some two hundred and more
broke away into small parties. They flung arms and
colours into a well, and were hunted up, exhausted
and famished, in the various independent states.
About one half remained. The pursuit was so sharp
that] had they remained in a body, and had the
10th Light Cavalry proved staunch, as they seemed
to be then, the 45th must have been annihilated.
The 57th N.I. laid down their arms at request; but
with a defiant air, significant of the feelings with
which they had been animated, and the disappoint-
ment they felt. The want of that perfect sympathy
and] cordial co-operation, which mark the attitude
of those who have some great common cause at heart,
was never more shown than in the demeanour of
the 10th Light Cavalry, who have all mutinied since.
When lukewarmness, not to say opposition, might
have been dangerous, they remained steady under
the moral hold of their officers.
Some accounts state that shades of guilt were
attempted to be drawn between the 57th and 45th
N. I. All that is certain is that the disbandment of
ORDER OF DISBANDMENT. 11
the former regiment came too late. The regiment
had anticipated their fate. The following order was
read out to some half-dozen remnants.
" Sepoys of the ' Lord Moira-ke-pultun\ (57th N. I.)
listen to the order of the Commander-in-Chief Sahib
Bdhadoor: he has ordered you to be disbanded;
the reasons are these : Before a Court of Inquiry it
has been proved that you would not receive the new
Enfield rifles ; your replies to the Court were evasive.
Now, these rifles differ very little from the muskets
which you have hitherto been using, and your fore-
fathers for the last century before you. This refusal
to receive the new weapon on the alleged plea that
you would lose your caste, is but an artifice to con-
ceal your real intentions, which are nothing else than
to revolt against the Government, which feeds you
now, and pensions you when you become superan-
nuated. On the 13th May, when the Murreeroo-ke-
pultun (45th N. I.) mutinied, and attempted to seize
the entrenched magazine, a company of your regi-
ment was on duty there, and, instead of firing on the
mutineers, they loaded their muskets to destroy the
European soldiers, whom the Brigadier Commanding
had then sent to protect the magazine. Subse-
quently some 300 sepoys deserted, and the guard of
your regiment on duty in the district, excited the
12 TIMELY PRECAUTIONS.
people there to join with them in making a religious
war against the British. Such has been the conduct
of the Lord Moira-ke-pultun. Now, hear your
punishment your colours shall be furled your
number effaced out of the army list, and yourselves
deported under proper escort to your homes."
Before the final desertion, even of men selected
for their previous good character, the Judicial
Commissioner, on his own responsibility, had urged
that the remainder should be marched to gaol,
and shot to a man, in case of the slightest oppo-
sition.
And yet so contradictory and anomalous were
appearances, that the demeanour of the 45th N. I.,
perhaps greater adepts in duplicity, inspired the
greater confidence.
The 57th were never allowed to be in a position
in which they could, on the day and night of the
13th, be called upon to act either with or against the
45th N. I. Hence when the 45th openly mutinied,
expecting aid from the 57th, the latter did all that
was required they remained quiet. The outbreak
of the 45th was as sudden and as little expected as
the outbreak at Meerut; but timely precaution
saved the station from the tragedies of Meerut. No
murders darkened the homes of Ferozepore ; though
GREAT STORE OF GUNPOWDER. 13
the havoc and riot for a time was scarcely inferior to
that of the last-mentioned station.
Had there not been some twenty thousand barrels
of gunpowder to care for in the arsenal, the churches
and the houses would not, perhaps, have been sacri-
ficed. The safety of the former was not dearly
purchased by the ignominious discomfiture of the
mutinous corps. Had the two corps been in a
position at any moment to unite, the 10th Light
Cavalry would, as events have proved, have been
unable to resist temptation ; and the thatched bar-
racks would have had to be defended, and the
magazine left. The fort, so called, could be
entered at all points : a spark would have ignited
the magazine, and blown all living into eternity. It
was no fault of the mutineers that this did not occur.
Three hundred of the 57th N. I. deserted in the hour
of trial, and the rest remained with their officers,
who could not but distrust them.
On the 28th of May, the remainder of the 45th
were turned ingloriously out of cantonments, and
escorted to the boundaries of the district. They
probably combated with no diminished acrimony
against us at Delhi from having been allowed to
reach it alive without money and without food.
Nothing in the shape of vile or insidious reports, here
14 GENERAL VAN CORTLANDT.
or elsewhere, had been omitted that could inflame the
bazaar people. Slaughtered cows and pigs, it was
confidently affirmed, had been thrown into wells so
as to khardb kur, or ruin the faiths of all sects,
whether Hindoo, Sikh, or Mahomedan. Moulvies
preached insurrection in the streets and the mosques.
But their ministry was of short duration, under the
vigilant Major Marsden.
General Van Cortlandt, of Mooltan and Bunnoo
celebrity, had been wisely selected by the Chief
Commissioner to raise and organize irregulars.
Under his influence the work proceeded apace,
and he was soon in a position to enter upon his
work, and to take formal command. The services
rendered by this well-known and veteran officer,
in conjunction with those of Captain Pearse,
Messrs. Oliver and Macdonald, do not properly find
scope in the present work, which professes only
to notice the events of the Punjab. But a
short summary of them may not be uninterest-
ing:
On the principle ne quid detrimenti capiat the
Punjab Government undertook immediately the re-
organization of the North- Western provinces of Sirsa,
Hansi, and Hissar, although a month previous they
had been as little under their control as Oudh itself.
VAN CORTLANDT'S TROOPS. 15
A force was arranged and despatched, the only-
Europeans being the officers ! The success was
gradual, but complete ; a sufficient proof of the im-
pression existing on the general mind of the invinci-
bility of the British Government, and the security
and the stability of its institutions. The almost
instantaneous occupation of these provinces in such
dangerous proximity to the focus of rebellion,
was fraught with value to our cause. The
blow was struck before delay had sapped our
prestige.
The troops of Brigadier-General Van Cortlandt
were all Irregulars. About 300 Dogras were at first
the nucleus of his force, belonging to Rajah Jowahir
Singh; whose troops, in the midst of the city of
Lahore, were thus adroitly made use of. Since then
the Dogras (a short built, sturdy race) have amounted
to about one thousand men in rank and file. Two
hundred disciplined " Kutar Mookhies " of Tronson's
Mooltan Regiment were added, also about one
hundred of the police sowars belonging to the same
gallant officer. They accompanied Captain Pearse
from Googaira. Add to this a couple of guns and a
regiment of raw levies raised by himself, some few
Peshawuree sowars, and a small detachment of
Patiala horse and foot, and the reader has the sum
16 DEFEAT OF THE REBEL BHUTTEES
of the whole force, which was the first to throw
down the gauntlet in the cause of law and order.
Some aid also arrived from the Bikaneer Rajah ; but,
as the composition of it seemed "of questionable
material," the services of this contingent were
courteously dispensed with.
Nerved by the stimulating hope of being the
instruments of wreaking just vengeance on the
authors of the massacres, the officers were prepared
to view mournful relics of harrowing fates, and they
felt at least a mournful solace to their bitter feelings
in performing the last rites to such few remnants of
human English remains as wild dogs and decomposi-
tion had permitted to remain above ground to bleach
in the scorching sun. The bodies of Captain Hil-
liard and Mr. Fell, which, after their base murder,
had been flung into a well, were taken reverently out
and interred with honour within sacred precincts.
Other dreadful evidences of massacre were dis-
covered.
When force was necessary, or when concili-
ation and pacification were expedient, Van Cort-
landt employed both, and invariably with effect.
Almost immediately on his arrival he gained a
decisive victory over the rebel Bhuttees, with the
slightest possible loss, on the 19th of June, when
ME. OLIVER AT SIRSA. 17
he routed the enemy from a strong position. They
numbered some two thousand, of whom two hundred
fell on the field of action.
Sirsa, depopulated, half sacked and half burnt,
the tombs of the Christians and the little cemetery
half despoiled, owes its regeneration to the strong
courage and fortitude of Mr. Oliver; who had never
left his post, and never lost his self-possession, though
within sight and earshot of death and the sounds
o
of death. His perfect reliance in the immediate
succour he so effectually received was rewarded, and
he was soon engaged in restoring that confidence
which overpowering numbers only for a time had
been enabled to shake, and in establishing the power
of the British Government on a surer and firmer
basis than before.
We have not space for details of the various
measures adopted; and, therefore, only proceed to
record a brilliant achievement, early in September,
of Lieutenant Pearse, who commanded the cavalry
attached to the Bhuttianah Field Force under Briga-
dier Van Cortlandt.
A pensioned subadar, one of the chief instigators
of the mutiny in the Hurrianah Light Infantry
Battalion, had found refuge in a rebel Ranghur
village called Bitoul. Lieutenant Pearse, accom-
p. c
18 DESTKUCTION OF REBEL VILLAGES.
panied by Mr. Ford, C.S., and Mr. Kitchen, his
clerk, with 280 horse, and some few Peshawurees
and Bikaneers, marched to the village through a
country inundated with rain, and found its position
strong, and the garrison strong. The eastern gate
was thought weak, but on a rush at it being made,
it proved much stronger than expected. The wood
work could not be fired from the wet. Lieutenant
Pearse dismounted; battered it down with his gallant
Peshawurees, killed the miscreant Goor Buksh, the
pensioner, with many others, and sacked the entire
place. Not a woman, however, was allowed to be
touched. No such stain has yet dimmed the lustre
of British triumphs.
Again on the llth of September, General Van
Cortlandt, with Lieutenants Sadlier and Hunt,
attacked and destroyed another rebel village of
Mungolee. The slaughter of the rebels and muti-
neers spread terror among the disaffected throughout
the whole district. Such was the consternation
among the insurgents, that on the 13th they fled on
the approach of Van Cortlandt's force, after firing
half a day ineffectual shots at a most cautious dis-
tance.
A few more villages have been thus condignly
punished, and tranquillity completely restored. The
CO-OPEKATION OF AMATEURS. 19
army was entirely Asiatic, but commanded by a few
officers of established repute, and' aided by the
presence of amateurs of all classes, who have been
repeatedly thanked for their aid in meting out swift
and merited retribution.
c 2
20
CHAPTER II.
GENERAL MEASURES ADOPTED AT LAHORE AND UMRITSUR
MARCH OF THE ARMY TO DELHI.
THE immediate crisis having been averted by the
proceedings sketched in the foregoing Chapter,
Mr. Montgomery promptly turned his attention
to internal politics. Public confidence was to be
maintained, excitement was to be appeased, and mes-
sages flashed incessantly to and fro, directing,
warning, and counselling. All day and all night
express horsemen galloped from one station to
another. The city of Lahore, filled with Maho-
medans, was fully alive to the state of things.
Every look and gesture of those in authority was
keenly eyed. Death had removed in Rajah Deena
Nath a palpable thorn in our side. But there were
still enough left to elicit the utmost diplomatic
address. The urgency of the situation had to be
explained frankly, while the hope of the eventual
triumph, under Providence, had to take the garb of
human certainty. The present contingency was
STATE OF T7MRITSUK. 21
admitted to be unforeseen, unmerited, and such has
as yet beset no ordinary throne since empires were.
It was one marked by such baseness and ingratitude
that the fidelity of honourable men could safely be cal-
culated upon in actively expressing their abhorrence.
Equally dangerous would have been any show
of disaffection in the sister and neighbouring capital
of TJmritsur. Vast commercial interests were in-
volved in its safety; within its walls, too, are
enshrined the essence of the mystery, and the relics
of the traditionary epochs of the Sikh national
faith. The population, swelled by the sudden stop-
page of the current of traffic from the north, must
have increased to nearly one hundred and fifty
thousand souls. Every class, creed, grade, and
clime of Asia, were represented. The trade opera-
tions were intimately mixed up with Delhi ; and the
great commission brokers and capitalists, who never
thought of politics beyond how it affected the money
market, and who had always steadily backed the
irresistible " ekbal " of the Government, experienced
a rude shock when it was announced that the Grand
Trunk Road was (for the first time since the British
rule) impassable. The temporary suspension of trade
afforded leisure for surmise, and the discussion of
politics became the order of the day. It is impos-
22 TRANQUILLITY IN THE PUNJAB.
sible to say to what pitch the agitation amongst the
burghers might not have arisen, but for the won-
derful peace kept throughout those troublous days in
Bombay and Scinde, the roads through which were
always safe. Not only was physical support and
reinforcement afforded to the Punjab by the inde-
fatigable efforts of Lord Elphinstone and Mr. Frere,
but the most advantageous moral impression was
kept up, by the entire tranquillity and freedom of
intercourse which they contrived, in the teeth of
stupendous difficulties, to preserve intact.
It remained to be seen whether the poisonous
matter, which had for the first time produced tem-
porary cohesion and unity of action among Hindoos
and Mahomedans, would be absorbed into the Sikh
system. But notwithstanding the thriving mission
school and church close abutting on the holy tank
and temple, so marked had been the principle of
religious toleration, and so perfectly appreciated, that
from first to last no symptom of wavering has betrayed
itself. Much to the contrary, even ; for the conduct
of the mutinous traitors has evoked national con-
demnation, while the atrocities upon the helpless
evoked national commiseration. The steadiness of
the atmosphere at Umritsur, lent almost unhoped for
weight to the public cause.
MK. MONTGOMERY'S MEASURES. 23
To return to the immediate measures adopted.
All conventional formalism was banished by Mr.
Montgomery. His instructions sped swiftly through-
out the country, and before the sepoys had time to
recover from the blows at Meean Meer and Feroze-
pore, and ten days after at Peshawur, all outlying
treasure had been brought under proper custody and
temptation thereby removed. All letters had been
way-laid ; the Hindoostanee element in the executive
and detective force gradually fell into disuse; the
cupidity of the villagers was excited by rich rewards
for the capture of mutinous sepoys dead or alive;
the great forts of Lahore and Govindghur had been
abundantly stored ; measures in all directions had been
adopted against surprise, and the gaol guards were
added to. Meanwhile the ordinary courts suspended
not their functions, but the civil and criminal busi-
ness was carried on with as much apparent calmness
as if the most common-place occurrences of tranquil
government existence were taking place, and the
flames of rebellion were not lapping up province
after province in Hindoostan.
Emissaries of every garb and hue had been de-
spatched by the indefatigable machinators to under-
mine the Sikhs and upset the tottering loyalty of the
Native Infantry corps in the Punjab the latter but
24 CALM ENERGY OF GOVERNMENT.
too successfully. A vast accession of Byragee
faqueers, it was remarked, had cropped out. Political
arrests became rapid. The haunts of old Sikh
fanatics were looked up, and their inmates cared
for. Curiously-bedizened men affected to walk
about Suddur stations with an unusual partiality
for swords and matchlocks. They were all arrested,
their arms seized, and securities taken from them if
their answers were satisfactory ; otherwise they were
imprisoned sine die, i. e. } pending the upshot of events.
Offers of aid and service poured in immediately
on the Government ; but it was not politic to appear
as if we threw ourselves upon the people ; so with
expressions of thanks, and promises to indent upon
their active allegiance should necessity arise, the
sirdars and chiefs were deceived as to the magnitude
of the crisis, and the extent of their own power.
Impassible as the countenance of Louis Napoleon,
was the aspect worn by the local Government.
Such calmness was the more necessary as the alarm
among the European residents deepened in intensity.
Thus no half-measures were adopted. Moreover,
the principle that he who is not for us is against us
was strictly followed. There was no pause. Treason
and sedition were dogged into the very privacy of
the harem, and up to the sacred sanctuaries of
POLICE ESPIONAGE. 25
mosques and shrines. Learned moulvies were seized
in the midst of a crowd of fanatic worshippers, and
men of distinction and note were " wanted " at dead
of night. Like sleugh-hounds, the district police,
on the first scent of treason, and egged on by the
certainty of reward, fastened on the track, and left
it not until the astonished intriguer was grounded in
his lair. As with the detectives of Vidocq, there
were spies in the market-place, at the festival, in the
places of worship, in the gaols, in the hospitals, in
the regimental bazaars, among the casual knot of
gossippers on the bridge, among the bathers at the
tanks, among the village circle round the well under
the big tree, among the pettifogging hangers-on of