hoes
off and carry them out in your own hands.'"

Major Lake assented, and the crestfallen general did as he was bidden.
Mr. Henry Newbolt pictures his discomfiture for us in the stirring
ballad he has written on this incident[2]--

"When Mehtab Singh came to the door
His shoes they burned his hand,
For there in long and silent lines
He saw the captains stand.

When Mehtab Singh rode from the gate
His chin was on his breast:
The captains said, 'When the strong command,
Obedience is best.'"

The immediate result of Nicholson's high-handed action was to change
the current of public feeling in Jalandhar. The natives dropped their
impudent manner, and realised that the British _raj_ was by no means in
as tottering a condition as they had supposed.

From Jalandhar the Movable Column proceeded to Umritsur, where tidings
reached it of fresh outbreaks at Jhelum and Sialkot. Nicholson lost no
time in dealing out vengeance to the mutineers, who had killed many
Europeans. Pushing on with his force at full speed, he came in touch
with them on the banks of the river Ravi, a branch of the Chenab, and
opened fire. It was a short but sharp engagement, for numbers of the
rebels were inflamed by the drug known as _bhang_, and fought like
fiends. In less than half an hour the sepoys turned tail, leaving some
hundreds dead or wounded on the battlefield.

Two days later the pursuit was again taken up, and the mutineers were
cornered at another spot on the Ravi. As before, Nicholson had it all
his own way. Shot and shell quickly drove the enemy out of their
position on an island in the river, and those who escaped death from
bullet or bayonet flung themselves panic-stricken into the river, to be
drowned or captured subsequently. This victory was all the more
notable by reason of the fact that the 3000 (some say 4000) sepoys who
lost their lives were at the time marching to join the mutineers at
Delhi.

In connection with this episode, Mr. R. G. Wilberforce, who served with
the column, makes an interesting note in his book. Nicholson, he says,
told him the story of how he had once killed a tiger with his sword
while on horseback, the affair taking place (if the narrator is not
mistaken) on the very island in the Ravi where the rebels had sought
refuge.

This feat, with which Sir James Outram is also credited, is performed
"by riding round and round the tiger at a gallop, gradually narrowing
the