the night of the 22nd he deserted, taking with him 250 men of the regiment.  His hopes were a second time doomed to disappointment.  However welcome 250 muskets might have been to the Afridis, 250 unarmed sepoys were no prize; and as our neighbours in the hills had evidently come to the conclusion that our raj was not in such a desperate state as they had imagined, and that their best policy was to side with us, they caught the deserters, with the assistance of the district police, and made them over to the authorities.  The men were all tried by Court-Martial, and the Subadar-Major was hanged in the presence of the whole garrison.

On the 23rd May, the day after the disarmament, news was received at Peshawar that the 55th Native Infantry had mutinied at Mardan, and that the 10th Irregular Cavalry, which was divided between Nowshera and Mardan, had turned against us.  A force was at once despatched to restore order, and Nicholson accompanied it as political officer.  No sooner did the mutineers, on the morning of the 25th, catch sight of the approaching column than they broke out of the fort and fled towards the Swat hills.  Nicholson pursued with his levies and mounted police, and before night 120 fugitives were killed and as many more made prisoners.  The remainder found no welcome among the hill tribes, and eventually became wanderers over the country until they died or were killed.  Poor Spottiswoode, the Colonel, committed suicide shortly before the Peshawar troops reached Mardan.

[Footnote 1:  The Head-Quarters of this regiment had been sent to Mardan in place of the Guides.]

[Footnote 2:  Now the 1st Bengal Infantry.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER X. 1857

Neville Chamberlain’s presence of mind —­The command of the Column—­Robert Montgomery —­Disarmament at Mian Mir —­A Drum-Head Court-Martial—­Swift retribution

While I was employed in the Chief Commissioner’s office at Rawal Pindi it became known that the Mutineers intended to make their stand at Delhi, and immediately urgent demands came from the Head-Quarters of the army for troops to be sent from the Punjab.  Sir John Lawrence exerted himself to the uttermost, even to the extent of denuding his own province to a somewhat dangerous degree, and the Guides and 1st Punjab Infantry, which had been told off for the Movable Column, were ordered instead to proceed to Delhi.

The Guides, a corps second to none in Her Majesty’s Indian Army, was commanded by Captain Daly,[1] and consisted of three troops of Cavalry and six companies of Infantry.  The regiment had got as far as Attock, when it received the order to proceed to Delhi, and pushed on at once by double marches.  The 4th Sikhs, under Captain Rothney, and the 1st Punjab Infantry, under Major Coke,[2] followed in quick succession, and later on the following troops belonging to the Punjab Frontier Force were despatched towards Delhi:  a squadron of the 1st Punjab Cavalry, under Lieutenant John Watson (my companion in Kashmir); a squadron of the 2nd Punjab Cavalry, under Lieutenant Charles Nicholson[3] (John Nicholson’s brother); a squadron of the 5th Punjab Cavalry, under Lieutenant Younghusband; and the 2nd and 4th Punjab Infantry, commanded respectively by Captains G. Green[4] and A. Wilde.[5]