But this was not enough for Rasul
Khan, and he laid his further plans accordingly.
The cordial interchange of rough soldierly amenities had borne its
fruit, and the suspicions of the Sikhs were completely lulled. To an
alert and resourceful soldier like Rasul Khan, a man whom nothing in
warlike strategy escaped, it occurred amongst other things that only a
single sentry with his reliefs, under a non-commissioned officer,
guarded the main entrance. As night fell, with engaging candour he
pointed out the weakness of this arrangement to the Commandant, and, to
avoid imposing additional guard duties on the Sikh garrison, offered,
now that his men were well rested, to place a double sentry on the cells
of the prisoners. Further, he made the obvious suggestion that it would
be unsound, when once the drawbridge was up, to let it down each time
that a relief of sentries was required, and that therefore it would
probably be more convenient for all parties, as well as safer, if the
reliefs for the double sentry also slept in the fort. With a whole
regiment in garrison there seemed to be no particular objection to this
proposal, and it was therefore accepted. Rasul Khan thus had at the main
gate six men and a non-commissioned officer, not to mention three
soldiers disguised as prisoners, as against three Sikhs and a
non-commissioned officer. Be assured that he chose the bravest of the
brave for that night's work, for, when the drawbridge was drawn slowly
up that evening, it was ten men, and three of them unarmed, against a
regiment; and short and terrible would have been the shrift accorded to
them had an inkling of suspicion arisen, or had the slightest blunder,
or precipitation, exposed the true position.
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