o
British columns now advanced to do the real business of the day: the
right, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Pattoun; the left, by
Lieutenant-Colonel Franks; while three squadrons of cavalry, commanded
by Lieutenant-Colonel Wheeler, protected the British flanks. Both the
rebels and British troops fought desperately. Moolraj's intrenched
position was fiercely assailed, and fiercely defended. Scarcely a man
of its defenders escaped to tell their chief how calmly the young
English engineer, Lieutenant Grindall, planted the scaling-ladder in
their grim faces; how vainly they essayed to hurl it back; how madly
rushed up the grenadiers of the 32nd; with what a yell the brave Irish
of the 10th dropped down among them from the branches of the trees
above; and how like the deadly conflict of the lion and tiger in a
forest den, was the grapple of the pale English with the swarthy Sikhs
in that little walled space the rebels thought so strong.

On this day fell Major Montizambert, of the 10th, Colonel Pattoun,
Quarter--Master Taylor, Lieutenant Cubitt, and Ensign Lloyd; while Major
Napier, the chief engineer, was among the wounded. Altogether, 39 men
were killed, and 216 wounded. This victory of Dhurum Salah gained the
besieging army a distance to the front of some eight or nine hundred
yards, and brought them within battering distance of the city walls.
Everybody expected that in a few hours Mooltan would be won, when the
astounding news reached General Whish that Rajah Sher Singh and his
whole army had gone over to the enemy. A council of war was on this
immediately held, when it was decided that the siege of Mooltan should
be raised, and that the British army should retire to a short distance,
and there, holding a dignified attitude, wait for reinforcements. Rajah
Sher Singh was, however, received with suspicion by Moolraj, and so, in
a short time, he marched off to join his father and other insurgent
chiefs. It was soon evident that the greater part of the Sikh
population was insurgent. The only remedy for this state of things, it
was agreed, was the annexation of the Punjaub--Mooltan, however, must
first be taken.

The interval was not passed idly. Lieutenant Taylor prepared all sorts
of contrivances for facilitating siege operations; and General
Courtlandt's sappers and Lieutenant Lumsden's guides prepared the
enormous number of 15,000 gabions and 12,000 fascines. Moolraj was also
actively employed in strengthe