of those brave soldiers on whom, for the time, our empire and our very lives depended, by sowing the seeds of fatal disease under those old tents or overcrowded barracks at Umballa, beneath the scorching suns of the summer solstice-at length the whole of the force was fairly under weigh by the 25th May.

Small detachments had been already pushed on as carriage was procured; in advance a squadron of her Majesty's 9th Lancers, four companies of 1st Fusiliers, and two horse-artillery guns to occupy Kurnal. When a further detachment arrived, this body proceeded to Paneeput, which had been hitherto held by the Jheend Rajah; and being subsequently strengthened by two more squadrons of the 9th Lancers, the remainder of the 1st Fusiliers, and four more guns, they pushed on to Rhye, to hold that advanced post within twenty miles of Delhi itself: the last detachment marched out on the 25th May, and with it the Commander-in-Chief.

The whole force thus poured out from Umballa consisted of her Majesty's 9th Lancers, under Colonel Hope Grant; 1st Fusiliers, under Major Jacob; 2d Fusiliers, under Colonel Showers, (four companies of the 2d Fusiliers remaining behind to guard Umballa, under command of Cap tain Harris); Captain Turner's troop of horse-artillery; Captain Money's troop, with the 9-pounders from the native battery, which had been ordered in from Noorpoor instead of his own 6-pounders; one squadron of 4th Native Cavalry (Lancers), under Colonel Clayton; and the 60th Native Infantry, under Colonel T. Seaton.

On the 28th May the siege-train came in from Phillour, and the Nusseeree Goorkha Battalion from Jutogh--a coincidence for a time fraught with great danger. On the afternoon of the 27th, an advanceparty of the Goorkhas brought on the camp colours, and had scarcely reached the camping-ground when some Sepoys of the 5th Native Infantry found their way out and began to tamper with them. It was suggested to the Goorkhas that their nám (credit) was already gone, and that they would ever be regarded with suspicion; that a more favourable opportunity for an effective rise could

not be. The siege-train was coming in next day; the European troops had nearly all gone on towards Delhi; the force that remained were a mere handful; the 5th were still armed; and if the Goorkhas would join, they would rise, seize the train, and carry it off to the King of Delhi. The man to whom the offer was made was a faithful little Goorkha, and a prudent one; he at once replied that he could say nothing for his comrades, but the men of the 5th had better come over to the camp when the regiment marched in in the morning, and sound them. He himself went to Major Bagot, directly on that officer's arrival at the camping-ground, and reported what had passed. Major Bagot called up all the most trustworthy of the native officers, told them the whole occurrence, and said he relied on their honour to stand by him and Government, and to bring up any of the 5th Native Infantry who might come and endeavour to incite them to mutiny. Several men from the 5th soon came straggling into the camp as the morning passed on, yet not one was seized or brought up. At length Major Bagot called up the native officers, and asked them what was passing; they admitted that the Sepoys were using every argument to incite the Goorkhas to join in mutiny, but as no plan or time for rising had been suggested, there was nothing on which to base a charge.

The first report, however, communicated by Major Bagot to the Umballa authorities showed the danger that threatened; and that afternoon the 5th Native Infantry were quietly disarmed. The Goorkhas were sent down into the Saharunpore district; the siege-train arrived, and passed on towards Delhi in safety; and thus the cloud which had for some hours hung over Umballa was dispersed.

The very next day brought in tidings that the camp had only reached Kurnal, when General Anson was attacked by cholera. He died on the night of the 27th, and was buried the following day.

Alas! how many a soldier good," in the brave little band that hastened along that road panting for glory and revenge, was soon to follow him

"To that dark inn, the GRAVE!"

It was a checkered prospect on which the month of June opened in the Punjab.

At Lahore little had occurred since the morning of the 13th of May. The fort was safe, and strongly garrisoned by Europeans; and the cantonments of Mean Meer retained the same appearance of quiet, yet guardedness.

One only change had taken place : the Sikh Sepoys of the three Native Infantry corps, hurt at being involved in the common disgrace with their Poorbeah comrades, had respectfully remonstrated; and Brigadier Corbett, rejoicing to be able to show his confidence in their unshaken loyalty, drafted them out of their several regiments, formed them into a separate body, and restored them their arms. Cheering was it to mark the happy look and buoyant step with which these men, fretting as they had done, with downcast air, at the implied suspicion, now accepted these proofs of restored confidence, and with ready zeal relieved the Europeans of some of their heavy and almost incessant guards. This, too, was followed by another important step. To show the fullest confidence in this class, an order was issued that all Sikhs belonging to regiments quartered south of Umballa, who were on leave north of the Sutlej, should present themselves at Lahore; here they soon congregated, and at once became the nuclei of new regiments. One cause of anxiety certainly remained: the 8th Cavalry, though disarmed, were still mounted, and as such were a formidable body. The means, however, were now close at hand for giving this finishing-stroke to the bold measure of May the 13th; for, with the arrival of the Movable Column, which was already within three marches, and was being hurried in, this cause of anxiety would be at once removed.

The station of Sealkote remained quiet, and no signs of disaffection appeared, although the whole of the European force had been now withdrawn. When the order came for her Majesty's 52d Light Infantry and the Artillery to join the Movable Column, Brigadier Brind had on his own responsibility held back one hundred men of the 52d, and two guns, for the safety of the station, where the 46th Native Infantry and a wing of the 9th Cavalry still remained; but a subsequent order came for them, and this little force was most reluctantly sent off by the Brigadier, under Colonel Dennis of the 52d, to overtake the Column at Lahore. The Sepoys, however, though now without any European check, continued very orderly. At Jhelum the 14th Native Infantry remained sullenly quiet.

At Rawul Pindee some fears were entertained for the peace of the adjacent frontier, and suspicions of the 58th Native Infantry, which indeed grew into a panic on the 4th of the month, but in a few hours subsided into the former state of order and security.

Along the frontier beyond, in the Eusofzai district and Swat Valley, an attempt was made now and again by some fanatic Moulvie to create a disturbance; but Vaughan's gallant and trusty Punjabees (5th Punjab Infantry) and Nicholson's Police and Civil Sowars were at hand, and promptly put down any such ebullitions of feeling.

To the westward all was as yet quiet. The Gogaira country had just had a narrow escape. A sudden attempt had been made a few days before, by the prisoners of the jail, to break out and raise the neighbouring Goojurs; but the guard of Kutár Mookhees* were too stanch, and (though only sixteen in number) too strong also, and Captain Elphinstone,

the Deputy-Commissioner, with his assistant, Mr Berkeley, too vigorous and energetic; so the convicts paid dearly for their rashness: some fifty were shot down in their attempt to get over the walls, and only eighteen contrived to escape. There can be little doubt, however, that a couple of hundred of these desperate convicts, had they once got the mastery and escaped, would have thrown the whole district into commotion, ripe as it was afterwards proved to be for rebellion; and troops could have been ill spared at that time to settle a riotous rabble, when so many Sepoys in the surrounding stations, still armed though suspected, had to be cared for and looked after.

At Moultan all was quiet also; but it was felt that the security they enjoyed was only due to the proofs already given that the Sepoys were not trusted. Major Hamilton's plans at the first, of bringing all the treasure into the old fort, and strengthening it by throwing in the European Battery, and concentrating there the Police (horse and foot), had awed the disaffected among the Sepoys, and given confidence to the residents. The 1st Irregular Cavalry too (whilom Skinner's horse), under Captain Crawford Chamberlain, were looked on with great faith as a check on the two Sepoy corps-a faith which was subsequently proved to be well placed. Ferozepore remained quiet of necessity. The rebels of the 45th and 57th had escaped or been disbanded, and the 10th Cavalry, though not much relied on, were not yet strongly suspected. The fort was safe, and her Majesty's 61st on the alert. Still, however, seditious papers were circulated, and treason was preached in the Bazar with impunity.

At Umritsur a very desperate conspiracy, entirely Mohammedan, involving even officials in the local court and a Jemadar of his own Sowars, was detected by Mr F. Cooper, the Deputy-Commissioner, who was himself to have been the first victim; and nothing but its timely discovery prevented its proving fatal to nearly all the residents of the station, and disastrous to the whole country.

But from the Hurrianah district

tidings had come in of an appalling nature, and each day was now bringing its sad confirmation of the harrowing tale-that every Christian in Hansi and Hissar had been massacred. This proved not to be literally true, for some few did escape; but the sacrifice of life, of every age and sex, and the atrocities perpetrated in that district, were scarcely less awful than those which Delhi itself had witnessed a fortnight before. Some Sowars sent in by the Nawab of Dadree, at Mr Wedderburn's request, first showed signs of treachery. The Eed (May the 25th) had been allowed to pass over without any Mohammedan demonstration and uproar: but on the 29th they threw off all restraint. Carrying with them the 4th Irregular Cavalry, they opened the jail, released the prisoners, attacked the civilians in their very kutcheries, where, the Chuprassees and the Sepoys of the Hurrianah Light Infantry proving faithless, they fell easy victims. The rebellion at once spread through the whole district; a few hours saw Hansi, Hissar, and Sirsee, involved in one common ruin. The population around rose and equalled them in cold-blooded atrocities, the very Goojurs of the neighbouring district hunting down, and most barbarously ill-treating all who had succeeded in escaping from the treacherous Sowars and Sepoys. The Nawabs of Dadree and Runneea were believed to be

deeply implicated. The Bikaneer Rajah stood forth nobly, and sheltered all who could escape into his territory, and by him many lives were saved. To punish these rebels, and the still more inhuman Ranghur population, General Van Courtland, of Sikh repute, who had been in civil employ ever since the annexation, and was at the time at Ferozepore, was called on to raise a force. Readily did he desert the pen and the office-desk to resume the sword and saddle. His name acted like a charm. Many an old Sikh, who had laid aside the sword for the ploughshare, now sprang forward at the call. And he who had held high command in the days of Runjeet Singh found Sikhs again rallying to his standard, and was soon surround

ed by a body of old trained soldiers.* The Bikaneer Rajah sent at once five hundred men, and the Nawab of Bhawulpore was called on for a similar force, which he reluctantly and tardily supplied. General Van Courtland was soon in the field with a force sufficient to reconquer and hold that district.

And where was the Movable Column? In its now reduced proportions it entered Lahore on the morning of the 3d of June, consisting of her Majesty's 52d Light Infantry, under Colonel Campbell, Major Dawes' troop of Horse Artillery, Captain Bourchier's light-field battery, Major Knatchbull's native battery, a wing of the 9th Light Cavalry under Major Baker, the 16th Irregular Cavalry under Major Davidson, a wing of the 17th Irregular Cavalry under Captain Hockin, and the 35th Light Infantry under Colonel Younghusband.

It found temporary accommodation in the old disused lines which, in the days of "the Regency," had held the Army of Occupation. The arrival of the Column from above, and the 2d Punjab Cavalry under Captain Nicholson from Kohat, furnished the means of completely disabling_the disaffected troopers of the 8th Cavalry, which was effected in the following manner: By a slight change in the usual marching order of the Column, as they entered Lahore, her Majesty's 52d were placed in front, and it had been privately communicated to the officer commanding, that, while the left wing and the rest of the Column halted at Annarkullee, the right wing was to march on to Mean Meer, and take up ground at the central picket. It arrived in the dim twilight, and drew up along side the picket, which consisted of two companies of her Majesty's 81st Foot, and four guns of the Horse Artillery, and Nicholson's Irregular Cavalry. The 8th were then ordered to deliver up their horses. Overawed by the presence of so large a European force close by, and the unsympathising Punjabees at their side, they sullenly

obeyed. Many of the troopers maliciously let loose their horses, which, freed from all restraint, bore down on those of the Irregulars, causing great confusion and some injury among the Irregular Sowars: Captain Nicholson himself was lamed by a severe kick in the mêlée. The feat, however, was achieved, and the security of Lahore greatly increased.

The Column halted for a week, and during that time was called on to witness, and take part in, for the first time, a public execution, which for many weeks after was to be a painfully familiar scene. Two Sepoys of the 35th Light Infantry were charged with using seditious language, and an endeavour to instigate their comrades to open mutiny. They were tried, and condemned to be blown away from guns: the three native officers who reported their conduct, and bore witness against them, were deservedly rewarded. The execution took place on the 9th of June, in the presence of the whole Column. At its close, Brigadier-General Chamberlain addressed the 35th Light Infantry, in his own manly style, to the following effect :

"Native officers and soldiers of the 85th Light Infantry-You have just seen two men of your regiment blown from guns. This is the punishment I will inflict on all traitors and mutineers, and your consciences will tell you what punThose men have been blown from a gun, ishment they may expect hereafter.

and not hung, because they were Brahmins, and I wished to save them from the pollution of the hangman's (sweeper's) touch, and thus prove to you that the British Government does not wish to injure your caste and religion. I call upon you to remember that each one of you has sworn to be obedient and faithful to your salt. Fulfil this sacred oath, and not a hair of your head shall be hurt. God forbid that I should have to take the life of another soldier, but, like you, I have sworn to be faithful, and do my duty; and I will fulfil my vow by blowing away every man guilty of sedition and mutiny, as I have done to-day. Listen to no evil counsel, but do your duty as good soldiers. You all know full well