But
"God preserve us from these fiends," muttered the demoralised Sikhs,
and, assisting their deity to answer the pious prayer, the whole mass
broke and fled, pursued up to the very walls of Mooltan by "that thrice
accursed son of perdition, Fatteh Khan, Khuttuk," and the remnants of
his seventy Guides.
Through the intense heat of the summer of 1848 the little cluster of
English officers who stood for British dominion kept heart and energy in
the siege of Mooltan. As Edwardes described the position, it was only a
terrier watching a tiger; but it was at any rate a good stout-hearted
English terrier, and the tiger was afraid to face it. Yet even this
stout terrier had to give way a little, when no reinforcements arrived,
and when, in September, Sher Sing, with three thousand four hundred
cavalry and nine hundred infantry, deserted and went over to the enemy.
The siege, however, was only temporarily raised, and was at once resumed
on the arrival of a column of Bombay troops. This reinforcement
consisted of two British infantry regiments, five Native infantry
regiments, and three regiments of Native cavalry. With his force thus
strengthened General Whish immediately resumed the offensive, and not
only renewed the siege, but determined to take the place by assault. In
the furtherance of this project he first stormed and captured the city,
many of the buildings in which completely dominated the fort at short
effective ranges.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42