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608 CHAPTER XXXV.

Fresh Insurrection in the Punjaub – Treacherous Conduct of the Governor of Mooltan – Murder of Mr. Vans Agnew and Lieutenant Anderson – Alarming Conspiracy discovered at Lahore – The Sikhs raise the Standard of Revolt – Successful Diversion of Lieutenant Edwardes – Defeat of the Mooltan Troops by Col. Cortlandt and Lieutenant Edwardes – Mooltan invested by the British under General Whish – Defection of Shere Singh – Junction of the Sikh Forces – Advance of the British under the Commander-in-Chief – Siege of Mooltan – Dreadful Explosion – Surrender of Mooltan – Battle of Chillianwallah – Battle of Goojerat, and final Extinction of the Sikh Army – The Punjaub annexed to our Empire in the East – Conclusion.

The Governor-General having left at Lahore a garrison of 10,000 men under Sir John Littler, at the request of the principal Sirdars, to protect them against their own lawless countrymen, and assist them in the reconstruction of a government, returned to England from the scene of his civil and military triumphs, and declared that all danger of insurrection or disturbance in the Punjaub was at an end. But at the very moment this speech of Viscount Hardinge was delivered in England, the Sikhs were again in arms; and we were once more challenged to the contest by a fierce and gallant foe, whom we thought we had effectually subdued.

The locality of renewed aggression and treachery was Mooltan, the capital of a district lying between the left bank of the Indus and the right bank of the Sutledge, where it was found necessary or expedient to substitute Sirdar Khan Singh as governor, instead of Moolraj, who was believed to have shown intentions hostile to the durbar of Lahore and to the British Government. It was believed that Moolraj had accepted the liberal conditions offered to him, and had fully acquiesced in this arrange-