Page:The Indian Mutiny of 1857.djvu/299

Rh stations, or at Ságar and Máu, the British held only the ground occupied by their troops, there was yet a most important province to the north and north-west of the city, containing a numerous and warlike population, which had not yet declared itself. That province was the Panjáb. The question which was uppermost in every man's mind was how long the Panjáb would remain quiescent, Dehlí being unsubdued. To the consideration of the means adopted to answer that question favourably to the British I now invite the attention of the reader.

Sir John Lawrence was at Ráwalpindi when the wires flashed to him the story of the outbreak at Mírath and the seizure of Dehlí. Believing, in common with almost every soldier then in India, that, if promptly assailed by a British force, Dehlí would succumb as readily and as promptly as it had succumbed in the time of Lord Lake, he endeavoured by all the means in his power to impress upon General Anson the urgent necessity of marching upon the rebellious city without the smallest delay. He expressed the most unbounded confidence in the immediate result of such a movement. 'I served for nearly thirteen years in Dehlí,' he wrote, on the 21st of May, when General Anson had expressed his doubts as to the wisdom of attempting, with the means at his disposal, an enterprise against Dehlí, ‘and know the people well. My belief is that, with good management on the part of the civil officers, it would open its gates to us on the approach of our troops.' In a subsequent letter he wrote: 'I still think that no real resistance at Dehlí will be attempted; but, of course, we must first get the Mírath force in order, and, in moving against Dehlí, go prepared to fight. My impression is that, on the approach of our troops, the