Ready to the hand of a discontented satrap, sighing for the
illicit gains of a less austere rule, were the bands of discharged
soldiers, their occupation gone, who crowded every village. It was easy
to show, as was indeed the case, that these discontented warriors owed
their present plight to the hated English. For while one of the
conditions of peace, after the First Sikh War, insisted on the
disbandment of the greater portion of the formidable Sikh army, the
enlightened expedient of enlisting our late enemies into our own army
had not yet been acted upon to any great extent. To add to the danger,
every town and hamlet harboured the chiefs and people of only a
half-lost cause.
Thus the train of revolt was laid with an almost fatal precision
throughout the province, and only required the smallest spark to set it
alight. At the head of the incendiary movement was the Maharani, the
wife of the late and mother of the present infant king. Some inkling of
the plot, as could hardly fail, came to the British Resident's ears, the
primary step contemplated being to seduce from their allegiance the
Company's troops quartered at Lahore.
It was at this stage that a summons reached Lumsden to march with all
despatch to Lahore, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles. Here was
an opportunity of testing the value of a corps whose loyalty was above
question, and which from its composition could have no sympathy with the
movement.
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