in his court he decreed
that the nephew should receive his inheritance, since his uncle had
sworn it was his; and Alladad, shamefaced at the manner of his
discomfiture, and at the laughter of the people, went straightway on a
pilgrimage to Mecca, and the place knew him no more."

"Nikalsain is just, and very terrible," said Sherdil.

"Is he not like one of the heroes of old? A tall man, with a face as
grave as a mullah's, and a black beard thicker than mine, and he holds
his head high in the air as if he scorned to see the ground. Jan Larrens
sent him to us; his troops are yet on the way; and when they come there
will be hot work in the gates of Delhi."

A few days later Nicholson rode out to meet the movable column of which
he was in command, and which had been raised by the energy of John
Lawrence in the Panjab. It was an inspiriting sight when, on the
fourteenth of August, the column, 3,000 strong, British and natives,
marched into camp behind their stately leader, amid the blare of bands
and the cheers of the weary holders of the Ridge. Their arrival infused
the hearts of the besiegers with new courage and cheerfulness; every
man, from the general down to the meanest bhisti, hailed Nicholson's
coming as the beginning of the end.

About three weeks before, the siege-train for which General Wilson had
been for weeks anxiously waiting, left Firozpur. It stretched for five
miles along the Great Trunk Road, and was furnished with an
inconsiderable escort. On the twenty-fourth of August, General Wilson
learnt that a large force of rebels, with sixteen guns, had left Delhi
for Najafgarh, with the object of intercepting the siege-train and
cutting off supplies from the Ridge. Nicholson, ever eager for active
work, was given the task of dealing with the mutineers.

Early on the morning of August 25, in pouring rain, Nicholson left camp
at the head of two thousand five hundred men, consisting of horse and
foot, British and native, and three troops of horse artillery under
Major Tombs. To their great delight, Sherdil and Ahmed were among the
squadron of Guides that formed part of the force. The march reminded
them of the former expedition to Alipur. For nine miles they struggled
through swamp and quagmire, the mud so deep that the guns often sank up
to the axles and stuck fast, the rain falling in torrents all the time.
Some of the artillery officers despaired of getting their guns through,
but when they saw Nicholson's g