of the wild and rugged Margalla Pass, on the
north-western frontier of India, stands a plain stone obelisk. It
looks down on to the road that winds from Rawal Pindi to Hasan Abdal,
the road where once only the Afghan camel-train passed on its way to
and from Peshawur, but where now a railway marks the progress of modern
India. Severely simple in its exterior, the obelisk is yet one of the
most notable monuments to be seen in our great Eastern Empire, for it
commemorates a soldier-hero of high fame. On its base is inscribed the
name of John Nicholson.

This Margalla monument is not the only memorial to Nicholson in India:
there is a tablet to his memory in a church at Bannu, the scene of his
administrative work; and there is at Delhi, where he lies buried, a
fine bronze statue of recent erection. But the stone obelisk in the
frontier pass will stand for ever as the most striking tribute to the
man who played so prominent a part in the saving of India. Its very
position appeals strongly to the imagination. Here it was, in the
district which he ruled so wisely and well, that Nicholson's early
reputation was made; and here it is that among the wild tribesmen whom
he tamed to his will his memory is still fondly cherished.

Who was John Nicholson? The question may well rise to the lips of
many, for the writers of history textbooks have hitherto done him scant
justice. And yet the tale of the Great Mutiny cannot be properly told
without due acknowledgment being made to his genius. Those who know
how the fate of India trembled in the balance in those dark days of
1857, know what we owe to him among other strong men whom the occasion
brought to the front. It is now fifty years since Nicholson fell in
the hour of victory at Delhi; the present year is, therefore, a fitting
time to retell the story of his short but glorious career.

Like his distinguished chief, Sir Henry Lawrence, John Nicholson was an
Irishman. He was born, in December 1822, at Lisburn, near Belfast,
where his father, Dr. Alexander Nicholson, had a flourishing practice.
On the paternal side he came of a family which had been established in
Ireland since the sixteenth century, while through his mother, who was
a Miss Hogg, he was connected with a well-known Ulster family, of which
the late Lord Magheramorne was a representative.

Of young John's early life several stories have been preserved which
give some indication of his character. According to