Nicholson with the cavalry and mounted
police immediately started in pursuit. The cavalry, themselves
disaffected, did no execution whatever; but the police behaved with
great dash and gallantry, killing one hundred and twenty, and capturing
one hundred and fifty of the mutineers. The remainder escaped across the
border, but their fate was only postponed. Some were murdered by the
tribesmen, some driven back into British territory, captured and hanged,
and some were blown from guns before the eyes of the garrison of
Peshawur. Of the whole regiment all were destroyed except a few scores
who escaped the gallows and the guns to suffer transportation for life.
Such was the terrible ending of the 55th Native Infantry; a signal and,
as it proved, a most effective warning, the results of which were felt
over the whole of the north-west corner of India.
A distressing and pathetic tragedy resulted from the mutiny of this
regiment. Colonel Henry Spottiswoode who commanded it, like so many
other officers, absolutely refused to believe in the disloyalty of his
men. He was one of those who held the view that distrust bred
disaffection, which with confidence would never appear. So deeply
distressed was this chivalrous officer when his regiment rebelled, that
he refused to outlive what to him was an indelible disgrace, and so,
going apart, shot himself dead. According to an old soldier, then in
the Guides, he fell and was buried under a great mulberry tree at the
cross-roads near the fort.
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