On their way towards India the little party got as far as the great range of mountains, some twenty-four thousand feet in height, which divide Chitral from Bajaur, and attempted to cross it by the Nuksan Pass, the Pass of Death.  For four days and nights they struggled on, through the ever deepening snow and ever increasing cold.  Dilawur Khan’s comrade, Ahmed Jan, was the first to die; and then, on the fourth night, the brave old soldier himself gave out, and as he was dying he called to him one of the survivors, and said:  “Should any of you reach India alive, go to the Commissioner of Peshawur and say ’Dilawur Khan of the Guides is dead’; and say also that he died faithful to his salt, and happy to give up his life in the service of the Great Queen.”

So he died, and the eternal snows cover as with a soft and kindly sheet the rugged soldier who knew no fear.  The serene and majestic silence of the mountain is given to him whose life in the plain below had been one great and joyous fight from the cradle to the grave.

CHAPTER VI

THE GREAT MARCH TO DELHI

For the Guides the great tragedy of 1857 opened with the mutiny of the 55th Native Infantry.  When this regiment first showed signs of insubordination it was quartered at the neighbouring cantonment of Nowshera, then slenderly garrisoned by British troops, but with many European women and children.  For safety’s sake it was therefore thought better to isolate the regiment by sending it over to Mardan.  With the news of the outbreak at Meerut the demeanour of the regiment became more sullen and menacing, and it was accordingly decided at once to disarm the sepoys.  For this purpose a column was sent from Peshawur, consisting of a wing of the 70th Foot, a portion of the 5th Punjab Infantry under Vaughan, two hundred and fifty sabres of the 10th Irregular Cavalry, and some Mounted Police; the whole under Colonel Chute of the 70th Foot, with John Nicholson as political officer.

The 55th Native Infantry had been warned that the column was coming, and when, from the walls of the fort, they saw it approaching, they broke and fled, taking the Katlung road, thus hoping to escape across the border into Swat and Buner.  Nicholson with the cavalry and mounted police immediately started in pursuit.  The cavalry, themselves disaffected, did no execution whatever; but the police behaved with great dash and gallantry, killing one hundred and twenty, and capturing one hundred and fifty of the mutineers.  The remainder escaped across the border, but their fate was only postponed.  Some were murdered by the tribesmen, some driven back into British territory, captured and hanged, and some were blown from guns before the eyes of the garrison of Peshawur.  Of the whole regiment all were destroyed except a few scores who escaped the gallows and the guns to suffer transportation for life.  Such was the terrible ending of the 55th Native Infantry; a signal and, as it proved, a most effective warning, the results of which were felt over the whole of the north-west corner of India.