Mutiny at Sealkote.
§19. In this extremity John Lawrence determined to disarm every Bengal sepoy in the Punjab, and then to send every European soldier and gun to Delhi that could be spared. Nicholson hurried on the disarming, when news arrived that the sepoy brigade at Sealkote, on the Cashmere frontier, had broken out in revolt, murdered their officers, and then gone off to Delhi. Nicholson hurried after the brigade, overtook it on the banks of the Ravi, and almost annihilated it. Nearly every rebel was slain, or drowned in the river, or surrendered by the villagers to the British authorities.
Terrible execution.
There was one more tragedy in the Punjab which cannot be ignored. A sepoy regiment mutinied after it was disarmed, and tried to escape to Delhi. It was pursued by a British magistrate with a detachment of irregular horse. About 280 escaped to an island in a river, and being without arms and without food, they were compelled to surrender. The magistrate, however, could not possibly dispose of 280 rebels. He could not imprison them, and it was dangerous to let them loose. In this terrible emergency he saw no alternative but to have them shot in gangs. It was a measure which can only be justified by the law of self-defence and state necessity. The magistrate left the scene pale and trembling.[29]
Siege of Delhi.
§20. Towards the end of June the hot season passed away. The rains began; military operations before Delhi became possible in the daytime. Sir Henry Barnard died on the 5th of July, and was succeeded by General Archduke Wilson. On the 14th of July an attack on the British outposts was repulsed by General Chamberlain. Towards the middle of August, John Nicholson arrived from the Punjab with his flying column. On the 4th of September a heavy siege train arrived from the Punjab, and fifty large guns were placed in position.
Captured, September 1857.
From the 8th to the 12th of September, four batteries poured a constant storm of shot and shell on the doomed city. On the 13th the breaches were practicable. At three o'clock on the following morning, three assaulting columns were formed in the trenches, whilst a fourth was kept in reserve. The Cashmere gate was blown open by gunpowder; one column pushed through the gateway, whilst the others escaladed the breaches. The advancing columns were exposed to a ceaseless fire from houses, mosques, and other buildings, and John Nicholson received a mortal wound. Then followed six days of desperate street fighting. On the 20th of September the British flag waved in triumph over the old capital of Hindustan and the palace of the Great Mogul.[30]
Peace in the north-west.