e
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.

CHAPTER II

THE FIGHTING ROUND MOOLTAN AND AFTER

These prompt measures, however, served only a local and temporary
purpose, effective but little beyond striking distance of the troops
stationed at Lahore. The flame of unrest damped down here had burst
forth under a different banner at Mooltan, where the Diwan Mulraj farmed
the province under treaty with the Sikhs. The Diwan himself was a
miserable personality, but carried away by the tide of popular feeling,
he became inextricably involved in antagonism to the British cause by
the cold-blooded murder of Agnew and Anderson. These two British
officers, with the full consent and support of the Sikh Durbar, had been
sent to Mooltan on special duty in connection with the voluntary
abdication of Mulraj, which had been accepted by his suzeraine. The
escort sent with the British officers was a strong one, and, if loyal,
perfectly competent to deal with any disorders. It consisted of fourteen
hundred Sikhs, a regiment of Gurkhas, seven hundred cavalry, and six
guns.

This seemingly formidable and carefully composed body of troops proved,
however, to be entirely unreliable. Agnew and Anderson were, within a
few hours of their arrival at Mooltan, attacked and severely wounded by
fanatics, and no one raised a hand to help them. Lying helpless and
sorely wounded in the temporary asylum which their quarters afforded,
they heard with dismay that practically the whole of the escort on whom
their safety depended had gone over to the faction of Mulraj, a faction
which insisted on his remaining in power, and which was strongly
antagonistic to the claims of British political influence. Alone amid
thousands, it remained only for these brave young officers to offer up
their lives on the altar of British dominion.

Thus strongly committed to a line of action which was far from according
with his weak and vacillating nature, Mulraj raised the standard of
revolt, and sending the fiery cross through the country, called on all
to join in expelling the hated foreigner, and common enemy, from the
Land of the Five Rivers. The prospects of the cause looked bright
indeed. No organised body of British troops lay nearer than Lahore,
hundreds of miles dista