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THE STORY OF THE GUIDES
BY
COL. G.J. YOUNGHUSBAND, C.B.
QUEEN'S OWN CORPS OF GUIDES
AUTHOR OF "EIGHTEEN HUNDRED MILES ON A BURMESE TAT"
"INDIAN FRONTIER WARFARE," "THE RELIEF OF CHITRAL"
"THE PHILIPPINES AND ROUND ABOUT," ETC., ETC.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1908
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
_First Edition, March 1908._
_Reprinted April 1908._
DEDICATED
BY SPECIAL PERMISSION
TO
HIS MAJESTY KING EDWARD VII
COLONEL-IN-CHIEF
QUEEN'S OWN CORPS OF GUIDES
The Author's grateful thanks are due to the many past and present
officers of the Guides who have helped him in this little book. And
especially to General Sir Peter Lumsden and G.R. Elsmie, Esq., authors
of _Lumsden of the Guides_; and to the _Memoirs of General Sir Henry
Dermot Daly_, written by his son, Major H. Daly.
G.J.Y.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
FIRST STEPS IN WAR.
Sir Henry Lawrence's idea--Stocks and tunics--A new departure--Selection
of title--Duties--Harry Lumsden--His methods of training--Baptism of
fire--A gallant exploit--Working for the Sikhs--Capture of
Babuzai--Death of Duffadar Fatteh Khan--The spring of 1848--Guides
unravel a plot--General Khan Singh hanged--The Maharani deported 1
CHAPTER II.
THE FIGHTING AROUND MOOLTAN AND AFTER.
The Insurrection at Mooltan--Murder of Agnew and Anderson--Herbert
Edwardes's great achievement--A guide or two with nerves of steel--Siege
of Mooltan--Guides capture twelve guns--Ressaldar Fatteh Khan,
Khuttuk--His historic charge--With seventy men routs a brigade--Arrival
of Bombay troops--Mooltan stormed and taken--Lumsden attacks and
annihilates Ganda Singh's force--Battle of Gujrat--Pursuit of the
Sikhs--End of Second Sikh War 18
CHAPTER III.
THE CAPTURE OF THE FORT OF GORINDGHAR.
The fort described--Seventy-two guns and a battalion of
infantry--British determine to capture it--Rasul Khan and Guides'
infantry sent in advance--The strategy of the Subadar--Effects an
entry--A day of anxiety--Plans for the night--The sudden
onslaught--Capture of the fort--The Union Jack--Rasul Khan's
reward 31
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE FRONTIER IN THE 'FIFTIES.
Guides increased--Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk, again--The night
attack--Staunchly repulsed--Thirty against two hundred--With Sir
Colin Campbell--Nawadand--The enemy attack in force--A cavalry
picquet--Lieutenant Hardinge to the front--His splendid charge with
twenty men--Hodson of Hodson's Horse--Attack on Bori--Lieutenant
Turner's predicament--Gallantry of Dr. Lyell--Hodson's
charge--Celebrated spectators 39
CHAPTER V.
THE STORY OF DILAWUR KHAN.
Men accustomed to look after themselves--Shooting for a vacancy in
the Guides--No fiddlers and washermen--Rudyard Kipling's _Bhisti_--The
brave Juma decorated--Enter Dilawur Khan--A noted outlaw--Lumsden
pursues him--They "talk things over"--The outlaw enlists--The
goose-step--Dilawur the doctrinarian--The sinking boat--Nearly killed
as a Kafir--Becomes a Christian--His last duty--A brave but pathetic
end 51
CHAPTER VI.
THE GREAT MARCH TO DELHI.
The Mutiny of the 55th Native Infantry--Their tragic fate--The Guides
start for Delhi--Daly's diary--A fight by the way--An average of
twenty-seven miles a day--Arrival at Delhi--Every officer killed or
wounded first day--The summer of '57--Return to the Frontier--A warm
welcome--Three hundred and fifty out of six hundred left
behind--Complement of officers four times over killed or
wounded 65
CHAPTER VII.
TWENTY YEARS OF MINOR WARS.
With Sir Sidney Cotton against the Hindustani fanatics--Fierce hand to
hand fighting--Dressed to meet their Lord--Against the Waziris in 1860
under Sir Neville Chamberlain--Fierce attack on the Guides'
camp--Lumsden stands the shock--The charge of the five hundred--The
Guides clear the camp with the bayonet--Heavy casualties--Lumsden's last
fight--A story or two--Lord William Beresford--The Crag picquet--Colonel
Dighton Probyn--A boat expedition--Cavignari's methods--Surprise of
Sappri 76
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MASSACRE OF THE GUIDES AT KABUL.
The Cavignari mission--Escort of the Guides--Cordial reception--The
clouds gather--Insubordination of Herati regiments--The storm
bursts--Seventy men against thousands--Defence of the Residency--The
fight begins--Cavignari's bravery and death--Messages to the Amir--The
attempt of Shahzada Taimus--The enemy's guns arrive--The distant
witness--The three officers lead a charge--Kelly's death--Another charge
by Hamilton and Jenkyns--Jenkyns killed--Hamilton's last charge and
heroic death--The last bright flash--Retribution 97
CHAPTER IX.
THE AFGHAN WAR, 1878-80.
The Guides under Sir Frederick Roberts--Their devotion to him--Under Sir
Sam Browne at Ali-Musjid--Jenkins enlists an enemy--"No riding school
for me"--Battle of Fattehabad--Wigram Battye's death--Hamilton's fine
leading--He wins the V.C.--The Guides' march to Sherpur--They pass
through the investing army--Assaults on the Takht-i-Shah and Asmai
heights--Captain Hammond receives the V.C.--The final assault of the
enemy on Sherpur--Defeat and pursuit--The second battle of Charasiab--A
fine fight--Roberts marches to Kandahar 117
CHAPTER X.
WAR STORIES.
Fighting against his own people--The temptation--The sentry
succumbs--Seventeen sent in pursuit--Their return after two
years--Duffadar Faiz Talab's adventure--An unwilling General--His
unhappy position--A narrow escape--Saved by a British officer 135
CHAPTER XI.
THE ADVENTURES OF SHAH SOWAR AND ABDUL MAJID.
Shah Sowar meets "Smith"--They depart together--Sheikh Abdul Qadir, late
Smith--A travelling Prince--The first pitfall--Escape--Tea and
diplomacy--The Evil Spirit--The Chief with a thousand spears--The
Englishman's disguise fails--Death in the morning--A hairbreadth
escape--Abdul Majid--The fatal shoes--The compass down the well--A night
with his jailer--A stroke for freedom--A later meeting--Peace and
jollification 144
CHAPTER XII.
THE RELIEF OF CHITRAL.
The beleaguered garrison--Two hundred miles from anywhere--Rapid
mobilisation--Kelly's fine feat--Storming the Malakand--The Guides'
charge in the Swat Valley--Roddy Owen--The Panjkora--Position of the
Guides--The bridge breaks--The fight in retreat--Seven thousand held at
bay--A battle on the stage--Colonel Fred. Battye mortally wounded--A
night of suspense--Defeated by star-shells--Death of Capt.
Peebles--Action of Mundah--Relief of Chitral 160
CHAPTER XIII.
THE MALAKAND, 1897.
A sudden call on the Guides--Prompt departure and fine march--Days
and nights of constant hand-to-hand fighting--Story of the
trouble--Great bravery of the enemy--Repulsed again and again with
slaughter--Reinforcements arrive--Sir Bindon Blood--Relief of
Chakdara--Its splendid defence--A word for the British subaltern--The
fight at Landaki--MacLean's heroic death--Three V.C.s in one
day 172
CHAPTER XIV.
THE HOME OF THE GUIDES.
A camp to start with--The Five Star Fort--On the borders of
Yaghistan--After the mutiny--The bastions--Godby cut down--The
mess--The garden--The old graveyard--The Kabul memorial--Ommanney's
assassination--The names of roads--Old leaders--The
farm--Polo-grounds--Church--Daily life--Sport--Hawking--Climate--A
happy home 185
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Sir Harry Lumsden, who raised the Guides,
from a portrait made when he was
commanding the corps _Front_.
Afridis on the war-path _To face page_ 8
Ressaldar Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk, who at
the head of seventy men of the Guides'
Cavalry defeated and drove into
Mooltan a Brigade of Sikh Cavalry,
from a picture by W. Carpenter. By
kind permission of General Sir Peter
Lumsden, G.C.B. " 24
A Picquet of the Guides' Infantry
bivouacking " 40
A Scout of the Guides' Cavalry warning
his Infantry Comrades. The small man
on the right is a Gurkha " 70
A non-commissioned officer of the Guides'
Infantry " 80
An Afridi of the Guides' Infantry " 92
The Memorial Arch and Tank to the memory
of Sir Louis Cavignari and the officers
and non-commissioned officers and men
of the Guides killed in the defence of
the Kabul Residency, September 3, 1879.
In the foreground is a brass cannon
captured during the Relief of Chitral " 104
Statue of Lieutenant Walter Hamilton,
erected in Dublin Museum " 107
A Trooper of the Guides' Cavalry
Types of men in the Guides' Infantry " 136
Types of men in the Guides' Cavalry, both
in uniform and mufti " 144
Non-commissioned Officer and Trooper of
the Guides' Cavalry " 162
Thirty-four wearers of the Star "For
Valour," all serving at one time in
the Corps of Guides. This is the
highest distinction open to an Indian
soldier for gallantry in action. The
group illustrates the variety of tribes
enlisted in the Guides--Afridis,
Yusafzai Pathans, Khuttuks, Sikhs,
Punjabi Mahomedans, Punjabi Hindus,
Farsiwans (Persians), Dogras, Gurkhas,
Kabulis, Turcomans, &c., &c., most of
whom are here represented " 172
The old Graveyard at Mardan " 190
The Church at Mardan " 194
THE STORY OF THE GUIDES
CHAPTER I
FIRST STEPS IN WAR
It is given to some regiments to spread their achievements over the
quiet centuries, while to the lot of others it falls to live, for a
generation or two, in an atmosphere of warlike strife and ever present
danger. The Guides have been, from a soldier's point of view, somewhat
fortunate in seeing much service during the past sixty years; and thus
their history lends itself readily to a narrative which is full of
adventure and stirring deeds. The story of those deeds may, perchance,
be found of interest to those at home, who like to read the gallant
record of the men who fight their battles in remote and unfamiliar
corners of the Empire across the seas.
To Sir Henry Lawrence, the _preux chevalier_, who died a soldier's death
in the hallowed precincts of Lucknow, the Guides owe their name and
origin. At a time when soldiers fought, and marched, and lived in tight
scarlet tunics, high stocks, trousers tightly strapped over Wellington
boots, and shakos which would now be looked on as certain death, Sir
Henry evolved the startling heresy that to get the best work out of
troops, and to enable them to undertake great exertions, it was
necessary that the soldier should be loosely, comfortably, and suitably
clad, that something more substantial than a pill-box with a
pocket-handkerchief wrapped round it was required as a protection from a
tropical sun, and that footgear must be made for marching, and not for
parading round a band-stand.
Martinets of the old school gravely shook their heads, and trembled for
the discipline of men without stocks and overalls. Men of the Irregular
Cavalry, almost as much trussed and padded as their Regular comrades
(who were often so tightly clad as to be unable to mount without
assistance), looked with good-natured tolerance on a foredoomed failure.
But Sir Henry Lawrence had the courage of his opinions, and determined
to put his theories to practice, though at first on a small scale.
Not only were the Guides to be sensibly clothed, but professionally also
they were to mark a new departure. In 1846 the Punjab was still a Sikh
province, and the administration was only thinly strengthened by a
sprinkling of British officers. Men, half soldiers, half civilians, and
known in India under the curious misnomer of Political Officers,--a
class to whom the British Empire owes an overwhelming debt--were
scattered here and there, hundreds of miles apart, and in the name of
the Sikh Durbar practically ruled and administered provinces as large as
Ireland or Scotland. The only British troops in the country were a few
of the Company's regiments, quartered at Lahore to support the authority
of the Resident,--a mere coral island in the wide expanse. What Sir
Henry Lawrence felt was the want of a thoroughly mobile body of troops,
both horse and foot, untrammelled by tradition, ready to move at a
moment's notice, and composed of men of undoubted loyalty and devotion,
troops who would not only be of value in the rough and tumble of a
soldier's trade, but would grow used to the finer arts of providing
skilled intelligence.
The title selected for the corps was in itself a new departure in the
British Army, and history is not clear as to whether its pre-ordained
duties suggested the designation to Sir Henry Lawrence, or whether, in
some back memory, its distinguished predecessor in the French army stood
sponsor for the idea. Readers of the Napoleonic wars will remember that,
after the battle of Borghetto, the Great Captain raised a _Corps des
Guides_, and that this was the first inception of the _Corps d'Elite_,
which later grew into the Consular Guard, and later still expanded into
the world-famed Imperial Guard ten thousand strong.
But whatever the history of the inception of its title, the duties of
the Corps of Guides were clearly and concisely defined in accordance
with Sir Henry's precepts. It was to contain trustworthy men, who
could, at a moment's notice, act as guides to troops in the field; men
capable, too, of collecting trustworthy intelligence beyond, as well as
within, our borders; and, in addition to all this, men, ready to give
and take hard blows, whether on the frontier or in a wider field. A
special rate of pay was accorded to all ranks. And finally, fortunate as
Sir Henry Lawrence had been in the inspiration that led him to advocate
this new departure, he was no less fortunate in his selection of the
officer who was destined to inaugurate a new feature in the fighting
forces of the Empire.
Even from among officers of proved experience and ability it is by no
means easy to select the right man to inaugurate and carry through
successfully an experimental measure; much more difficult is it to do so
when the selection lies among young officers who have still to win their
spurs. Yet from among old or young, experienced or inexperienced, it
would have been impossible to have selected an officer with higher
qualifications for the work in hand than the young man on whom the
choice fell.
Born of a soldier stock, and already experienced in war, Harry Lumsden
possessed all the finest attributes of the young British officer. He was
a man of strong character, athletic, brave, resolute, cool and
resourceful in emergency; a man of rare ability and natural aptitude for
war, and possessed, moreover, of that magnetic influence which
communicates the highest confidence and devotion to those who follow.
In addition he was a genial comrade, a keen sportsman, and a rare friend
to all who knew him. Such, then, was the young officer selected by Sir
Henry Lawrence to raise the Corps of Guides.
That the commencement should be not too ambitious, it was ruled that the
first nucleus should consist only of one troop of cavalry and two
companies of infantry, with only one British officer. But as this story
will show, as time and success hallowed its standards, this modest squad
expanded into the corps which now, with twenty-seven British officers
and fourteen hundred men, holds an honoured place in the ranks of the
Indian Army.
Following out the principle that the corps was to be for service and not
for show, the time-honoured scarlet of the British Army was laid aside
for the dust-coloured uniform which half a century later, under the now
well-known name of _khaki_, became the fighting dress of the whole of
the land forces of the Empire.
The spot chosen for raising the new corps was Peshawur, then the extreme
outpost of the British position in India, situated in the land of men
born and bred to the fighting trade, free-lances ready to take service
wherever the rewards and spoils of war were to be secured. While fully
appreciating the benefits of accurate drill, and the minute attention to
technical detail, bequeathed as a legacy by the school of Wellington,
Lumsden upheld the principle that the greatest and best school for war
is war itself. He believed in the elasticity which begets individual
self-confidence, and preferred a body of men taught to act and fight
with personal intelligence to the highly-trained impersonality which
requires a sergeant's order before performing the smallest duty, and an
officer's fostering care to forestall its every need.
Holding such views, it is with no surprise we read that, while his men
were still under the elementary training of drill instructors borrowed
from other regiments, Lumsden led them forth to learn the art of war
under the blunt and rugged conditions of the Indian frontier. To march,
not through peaceful lanes, but with all the care and precautions which
a semi-hostile region necessitated; to encamp, not on the quiet village
green where sentry-go might appear an unmeaning farce, but in close
contact with a vigilant and active race of hard fighters, especially
skilled in the arts of surprises and night-attacks; to be ready, always
ready, with the readiness of those who meet difficulties half way,--such
were the precepts which the hardy recruits of the Guides imbibed
simultaneously with the automatic instruction of the drill-sergeant.
Nor was it long before Lumsden had an opportunity of practically
demonstrating to the young idea his methods of making war. The corps,
barely seven months old, was encamped at Kàlu Khan in the plain of
Yusafzai, when sudden orders came, directing it to make a night-march,
with the object of surprising and capturing the village of Mughdara in
the Panjtar Hills. In support of the small band of Guides was sent a
troop of Sikh cavalry, seasoned warriors, to stiffen the young endeavour
and hearten the infant warrior. Marching all night, half an hour before
daylight the force arrived at the mouth of a narrow defile,
three-fourths of a mile long, leading to the village, and along which
only one horseman could advance at a time. Nothing dismayed, and led by
the intrepid Lumsden, in single file the Guides dashed at full gallop
through the defile, fell with fury on the awakening village, captured
and disarmed it, and brought away, as trophies of war, its chief and
three hundred head of cattle. To add to the modest pride taken in this
bright initial feat of arms, it was achieved single-handed, for the
supporting troop of Sikhs failed to face the dark terrors of the defile
and remained behind. This opening skirmish was the keynote to many an
after success. It helped to foster a spirit of alert preparedness,
readiness to seize the fleeting opportunity, and courage and
determination when once committed to action. These seeds thus planted
grew to be some of the acknowledged attributes of the force as it
blossomed into maturity under its gallant leader.
During the first year of its existence the young corps was engaged in
several more of the same class of enterprise, and in all acquitted
itself with quiet distinction. As, however, the history of one is in
most particulars that of another, it will not be necessary to enter into
a detailed account of each.
The British in the Peshawur Valley, as elsewhere in the Punjab, were in
a somewhat peculiar position. They were not administering, or policing,
the country on behalf of the British Government, but in the name of the
Sikh Durbar. In the Peshawur Valley, in which broad term may be included
the plains of Yusafzai, the Sikh rule was but feebly maintained amidst a
warlike race of an antagonistic faith. In the matter of the collection
of revenue, therefore, the ordinary machinery of government was not
sufficiently strong to effect regular and punctual payment; and
consequently, when any village or district was much in arrears, it
became customary to send a body of troops to collect the revenue. If the
case was merely one of dilatoriness, unaccompanied by hostile intent,
the case was sufficiently met by the payment of the arrears due, and by
bearing the cost of feeding the troops while the money was being
collected. But more often, dealing as they were with a weak and
discredited government, the hardy warriors of the frontier, sending
their wives and cattle to some safe glen in the distant hills, openly
defied both the tax-collector and the troops that followed him. It then
became a case either of coercion or of leaving it alone. An effete
administration, like that of the Sikhs, if thus roughly faced, as often
as not let the matter rest. But with the infusion of British blood a
new era commenced; and the principle was insisted on that, where revenue
was due, the villagers must pay or fight. And further, if they chose the
latter alternative, a heavy extra penalty would fall on them, such as
the confiscation of their cattle, the destruction of their strongholds,
and the losses inevitable when the appeal is made to warlike
arbitration.
It was on such an expedition that one of the Guides had a curious and
fatal adventure. Colonel George Lawrence, who was the British
Representative in Peshawur, was out in Yusafzai with a brigade of Sikh
troops, collecting revenue and generally asserting the rights of
government. Co-operating with him was Lumsden with the Guides. Among the
recalcitrants was the village of Babuzai, situated in a strong position
in the Lundkwar Valley, and Lawrence determined promptly to coerce it.
His plan of operation was to send the Guides' infantry by night to work
along the hills, so that before daylight they would be occupying the
commanding heights behind the village, and thus cut off escape into the
mountains. He himself, at dawn, would be in position with the Sikh
brigade to attack from the open plain; while the Guides' cavalry were
disposed so as to cut off the retreat to the right up the valley.
In pursuance of their portion of the plan of operations, as the Guides'
infantry were cautiously moving along the hills towards their allotted
position, in the growing light they suddenly came upon a picquet of the
enemy placed to guard against this very contingency. To fire was to give
the alarm, so with exceeding promptness the picquet was charged with the
bayonet, and overpowered. At the head of the small storming party
charged a _duffadar_[1] of the Guides' cavalry, by name Fatteh Khan.
Fatteh Khan was one of those men to whom it was as the breath of life to
be in every brawl and fight within a reasonable ride. On this occasion
he was of opinion that the cavalry would see little or no fighting,
whereas the infantry might well be in for a pretty piece of hand-to-hand
work. "To what purpose therefore, Sahib, should I waste my day?" he said
to Lumsden. "With your Honour's permission I will accompany my infantry
comrades on foot. Are we not all of one corps?" And so he went, keeping
well forward, and handy for the first encounter.
[1] _Duffadar_, a native non-commissioned officer of cavalry,
answering to the _naik_ (corporal) of infantry.
As the gallant duffadar, sword in hand, dashed at the picquet, he was
from a side position shot through both arms; but not a whit dismayed or
hindered he hurled himself with splendid courage at the most brawny
opponent he could single out. A short sharp conflict ensued, Fatteh Khan
with his disabled arm using his sword, while his opponent, with an
Affghan knife in one hand, was busy trying to induce the glow on his
matchlock to brighten up, that the gun might definitely settle the
issue. In the course of the skirmishing between the two men a curious
accident, however, occurred. The tribesman, as was usual in those days,
was carrying under his arm a goat-skin bag full of powder for future
use. In aiming a blow at him, Fatteh Khan missed his man, but cut a hole
in the bag; the powder began to run out, and, as ill chance would have
it, some fell on the glowing ember of the matchlock. This weapon,
pointed anywhere and anyhow at the moment, went off with a terrific
report, which was followed instantaneously by a still greater explosion.
The flame had caught the bag of powder, and both the gallant duffadar
and his staunch opponent were blown to pieces.
So died a brave soldier. But lest the noise should have betrayed them,
his comrades hurried on with increased eagerness, and as good fortune
would have it arrived in position at the very nick of time. The
operation was completely successful. In due course the Sikhs attacked in
front, and when the enemy tried to escape up the hills behind their
village, they found retreat cut off by the Guides' infantry. Turning
back, they essayed to break away to the right; but the intention being
signalled to the Guides' cavalry, who were placed so as to intercept the
fugitives, these fell with great vigour on the tribesmen and gave them a
much needed lesson. It was now no longer an effete Sikh administration
that breakers of the law had to deal with, but the strong right arm and
warlike guile of the British officer, backed up by men who meant
fighting.
* * * * *
It was now the spring of 1848, and great events were brewing in the
Punjab. It was the lull between the two stormy gusts of the First and
Second Sikh Wars. To us at this date it does not seem to require the
omniscience of a prophet, prophesying after the event, to discover that
the settlement arrived at after the First Sikh War contained most of the
possible elements of an unpermanent nature. The Punjab was to remain a
Sikh province, with the infant son of the Lion of the Punjab as its
Sovereign; but the real ruler of the kingdom of the Sikhs was a British
officer, Henry Lawrence, at the head of a council of regency. To support
his authority British bayonets overawed the capital of the Punjab, and
assumed the mien of those who hold their place by right of conquest.
Attached to, but really at the head of, the minor centres of
administration, were men like Herbert Edwardes, Abbott, Taylor, George
Lawrence, Nicholson, and Agnew; the stamp of high-souled pioneer who
though alone, unguarded, and hundreds of miles from succour, by sheer
force of character makes felt the weight of British influence in favour
of just and cleanly government. And acting thus honourably they were
naturally detested by the lower class of venal rulers, whose idea of
government was, and is at all times and on all occasions, by persuasion,
force, or oppression, to squeeze dry the people committed to their
charge. Ready to the hand of a discontented satrap, sighing for the
illicit gains of a less austere rule, were the bands of discharged
soldiers, their occupation gone, who crowded every village. It was easy
to show, as was indeed the case, that these discontented warriors owed
their present plight to the hated English. For while one of the
conditions of peace, after the First Sikh War, insisted on the
disbandment of the greater portion of the formidable Sikh army, the
enlightened expedient of enlisting our late enemies into our own army
had not yet been acted upon to any great extent. To add to the danger,
every town and hamlet harboured the chiefs and people of only a
half-lost cause.
Thus the train of revolt was laid with an almost fatal precision
throughout the province, and only required the smallest spark to set it
alight. At the head of the incendiary movement was the Maharani, the
wife of the late and mother of the present infant king. Some inkling of
the plot, as could hardly fail, came to the British Resident's ears, the
primary step contemplated being to seduce from their allegiance the
Company's troops quartered at Lahore.
It was at this stage that a summons reached Lumsden to march with all
despatch to Lahore, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles. Here was
an opportunity of testing the value of a corps whose loyalty was above
question, and which from its composition could have no sympathy with the
movement. Consequently to Lumsden and his men was assigned the difficult
and unaccustomed duty of unravelling the plot and bringing the
conspirators to justice. Setting to work with his accustomed readiness,
and aided by one of his _ressaldars_,[2] Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk, of whose
prowess on many a bloody field the story will in due course be told,
Lumsden with characteristic alacrity undertook this intricate and
dangerous duty. His tracks covered, so to speak, by the unsuspicious
bearing of a blunt soldier in command of a corps of rugged trans-border
warriors, the unaccustomed rôle of a skilled detective was carried out
with promptness and success. In the course of a very few days some of
the Guides had obtained conclusive proof regarding three matters: that
the Maharani was at the head of the movement, that her chief agent was
the Sikh general Khan Singh, and that the Company's troops had already
been tampered with.
[2] _Ressaldar_, a native commissioned officer of cavalry.
As the plot thickened it was discovered that a meeting of the
conspirators, including fifty or sixty men of various regiments, was to
take place on a certain night at a certain place. Lumsden patiently
awaited the event, intending with the Guides to surround and capture the
conspirators red-handed. But, on the night fixed for the meeting, a
retainer of General Khan Singh came to visit one of the Guides, with
whom he was on friendly terms, and in the course of conversation made it
evident that his master was not easy in his mind, why not no one could
say, and that he had half determined on flight. The man of the Guides,
leaving his friend in charge of a comrade, with commendable acumen
hastened to Lumsden and told him the story. That officer at once saw
that the moment had come to strike, lest the prey escape. He therefore
immediately clapped the Sikh general's retainer into the quarterguard,
much to that individual's astonishment, and promptly parading the
Guides, hurried down to the city and surrounded Khan Singh's house.
It was now past eleven o'clock, the house was in darkness and strongly
barricaded all round; the city was that of a foreign power, and no
police, or other, warrant did Lumsden hold. But he was no man to stand
on ceremony, or shirk responsibility, nor was he one for a moment to
count on the personal risks he ran. Finding the doors stouter than they
expected, his men burst in a window, and headed by their intrepid
officer dashed into the building. There, overcoming promptly any show of
resistance, they seized General Khan Singh, his _munshi_[3] and a
confidential agent, together with a box of papers, and under close guard
carried them back to the Guides' camp. In due course the prisoners were
tried and conclusive evidence being furnished, and confirmed by the
incriminating documents found in the box, General Khan Singh and his
munshi were sentenced to be hanged. This prompt dealing served at once
to check rebellion in the vicinity of Lahore, and placed the Company's
troops beyond the schemes of conspirators.
[3] _Munshi_, a secretary or clerk.
Amongst other papers found in Khan Singh's box were some which clearly
inculpated the Maharani, and it was at once decided to deport her beyond
the region of effective intrigue. The lady was, under arrangements made
for her by the Government, at this time residing in one of the late
Maharaja's palaces at Sheikapura about twenty-three miles from Lahore.
To Lumsden and his men was entrusted the duty of arresting and deporting
the firebrand princess. As taking part in this mission, first appears in
the annals of the Guides the name of Lieutenant W.S.R. Hodson,
afterwards famous for his many deeds of daring, and whose name still
lives as the intrepid and dashing leader of Hodson's Horse. Appointed as
adjutant and second-in-command to a born exponent of sound, yet daring,
methods of warfare, his early training in the Guides stood him in good
stead in his brief, stirring, and glorious career.
In the execution of their orders Lumsden and Hodson with the Guides'
cavalry set off quietly after dark for their twenty-three miles ride.
The service was of some difficulty and of no little danger, for not
only might the Maharani's numerous partisans make an armed resistance,
but failing this they might organise a formidable rescue party to cut
off the enterprise between Sheikapura and the Ravi. Against any such
attempt, made with resources well within hail, the slender troop of the
Guides would naturally come in for some rough buffeting. Much, however,
to the surprise, and possibly the relief, of the British officers, they
were received not only without any signs of hostility, but with smiles
of well-assumed welcome. The explanation of this was that somehow news
of the fate of General Khan Singh had already reached the Maharani, and
with Eastern diplomacy she was preparing to trim her bark on the other
tack. Even to the suggestion that she should prepare to make a journey
she raised no objection; and it was only when she found herself on the
road to Ferozepore, and learnt that her destination was Benares, that
the courtesy and dignity of a queen gave place to torrents of scurrilous
abuse and invective such as the dialects of India are pre-eminently
capable of supplying.