Amongst other historic figures who watched this fight, and who added
their generous meed of praise, were John Lawrence, the saviour of the
Punjab, who later, as Lord Lawrence, was Viceroy of India, Major Herbert
Edwardes, now Commissioner of Peshawur, who as a subaltern had won two
pitched battles before Mooltan, and Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Napier,
afterwards Lord Napier of Magdala and Commander-in-Chief of the Army in
India.
CHAPTER V
THE STORY OF DILAWUR KHAN.
The story of Dilawur Khan, subadar of the Guides, is one which
kindles many a kindly memory of the rough brave fellows who, under a
sprinkling of English officers, upheld British supremacy on the
North-West Frontier of India in the early 'fifties.
When Lumsden was raising the Guides he looked about for men who, as he
expressed it, were "accustomed to look after themselves and not easily
taken aback by any sudden emergency,"--men born and bred to the sword,
who had faced death a hundred times from childhood upwards, and who had
thus instinctively learnt to be alert, brave, and self-reliant. To these
hardy warriors Lumsden explained the simple doctrine that they were
enlisted for three years, had to do what they were bid, and would
receive a certain fixed salary every month for their trouble.
Soldiers of fortune and dashing young bloods from all the countryside
flocked to his standard, and so popular was the corps that there were
sometimes as many as thirty of these receiving no pay, and maintaining
themselves and their horses, while awaiting a vacancy.
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